A Win for Obama, Moderate Catholics

Abortion opponents protested and pro-life students skipped, but Barack Obama's Notre Dame commencement address was at once "the most radical and the most conservative speech of his presidency," writes Washington Post columnist EJ Dionne. The president refused to indulge the protesters' desire to "reignite the culture wars," opting for humility and compromise—but he showed a comfort with the language of faith equal to George Bush.

"The ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt," Obama said, leading us away from self-righteous certainty and toward inclusion. That was a subtle riposte to the demonstrators and hecklers, according to Dionne, and will cheer moderate Catholics as much as abortion rights activists. "Obama's opponents on the Catholic right placed a large bet on his Notre Dame visit," the columnist writes. "And they lost." (More Barack Obama stories.)