Obama on abortion

From the WaPo, specific evidence of Obama's ability to tone down inflammatory and polarizing rhetoric and bridge the divides that separate people on contentious issues. This time, the issue is abortion, and one of the people he is reaching out to is Bob Casey, the Senator from Pennsylvania. This is probably a big part of the reason why Casey endorsed him:

"He has the unique skills to try to lower the temperature and foster a sense of common ground, and try to figure out ways that people can agree," Casey said, although the freshman senator added, "On this issue, it's particularly hard."

Obama has the rare of gift of being able to not only see both sides of an argument, but also explain each side so that opponent's understand each other. There is one element of common ground on this issue: no one likes abortion, we all want to reduce the incidence of it. Bill Clinton actually put it well years ago: abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. Hillary says the same thing, and I think she handles it well. But because Obama listens so carefully, I think he'll be successful in bringing the two sides together. How successful remains to be seen, but I think he will at least shift the debate. I don't think he'll transform the debate; I don't think he will change it completely. He doesn't have a magic wand. But I think he might shift it.