The newsreader said, matter of factly, President Obama "supports abortion on demand." Honestly, I was stunned. For one brief moment, out with the obfuscations, in with the truth.

I'd like to offer a few thoughts about President Obama's remarks at Notre Dame. There is no end to what I could address, but I'll limit my reflections to a single theme which was the thread that ran through the speech: Obama's self-congratulatory search for "common ground."

To begin with there was a reason a number of photos of Obama made you think of the cat that swallowed the canary. From his perspective, yesterday was as good as it gets.

Honors (an honorary doctor of laws) from the Catholic university in the United States, no less. High fives from the president and immediate past president of the University of Notre Dame. Reams of positive media coverage, the sum and substance of which is that Daniel in the lion's den had nothing on Obama.

Obama delivered a speech awash in biblical imagery. Indeed, he invoked it to explain what stands in the way of fulfilling his unceasing search for common ground. What is it?

Our imperfections--that panoply of weaknesses that "those of us in the Christian tradition understand to be rooted in original sin"--that and self-interest, materialism, and the like.

Obama missed the obvious irony in a comment delivered a moment later. Those who "seek advantage over others," Obama said, see the world as "necessarily a zero-sum game," where "the strong too often dominate the weak." Zero-sum…strong dominate the weak, where have I seen that before?

Furiously name-dropping, Obama also mentioned Dr. Martin Luther King to explain why "recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a 'single garment of destiny' -- is not easy." For those who don't know (including me), the passage is from Dr. King's "Letter's from a Birmingham Jail." Let's read the sentence that precedes and the sentence that follows that thought.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," Dr. King wrote. "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Pro-lifers have argued the case for life a million different ways. But the common ground is that when we abort an unborn child, we not only unjustly take an innocent child's life, we also often unleash a wave of destruction that wreaks havoc in the child's family and always brutalizes our collective life as a community.

Please understand, I don't blame Obama for saying yes. He is a politician, and the invitation presented a shopping cart full of goodies for him. Why say no when you will be hailed for merely showing up and when those who oppose the invitation will be dismissed as intolerant, reactionary, and closet racists to boot?

That is the ultimate win-win situation.

University of Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins? That's another story. Here's the operative sentences from his introduction yesterday.

"Most of the debate has centered on Notre Dame's decision to invite and honor the President," he said.

"Less attention has been focused on the President's decision to accept. President Obama has come to Notre Dame, though he knows well that we are fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of human life, and we oppose his policies on abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Others might have avoided this venue for that reason. But President Obama is not someone who stops talking to those who differ with him."

Get it? Although besieged with admirers and inundated with praise, Obama is actually to be congratulated for what--contrary to a mountain of evidence--required an act of courage. And in case anyone has missed the point, Jenkins is to be congratulated as well for inviting the most pro-abortion President in our history to give the commencement address at a school which is "fully supportive of Church teaching on the sanctity of human life," and which "oppose[s] his policies on abortion and embryonic stem cell research."

Golly, everybody wins! Everybody is courageous! Among the many tragedies is the sobering realization that Fr. Jenkins probably believes this.

I did not hear the speech live. But as I read the text, I immediately thought of one Old Testament passage that will never make its way into any Obama speech:

"You formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother's womb.

"I praise you, so wonderfully you made me;
wonderful are your works! My very self you knew;

"My bones were not hidden from you,
When I was being made in secret,
fashioned as in the depths of the earth.

"Your eyes foresaw my actions;
in your book all are written down;
my days were shaped, before one came to be."

Part Two -- For First Time, Majority of Americans in Gallup Poll Identify as Pro-Life