As expected, a heaping scoopful of pap about tolerance and dialogue aimed at defusing the issue ahead of 2012. Realistically, this was the only rhetorical move he could have made, but it’s rich to find him urging both sides to continue trying to persuade each other when he didn’t have the stones to use this as an opportunity to make the case for choice. I admit, this isn’t my issue — I’d accept legal abortion in the very, very early stages of pregnancy, before the embryo can feel pain — but I sympathize enough with true-believing pro-lifers to see how insulting the “agree to disagree” approach must be to the depth of their conviction. Huckabee, provocatively, has framed the enormity of abortion as similar to that of slavery; just as slavery had to be expunged nationally via constitutional amendment, so does abortion in his opinion. Once you’ve come to see it that way, how “open-minded” can you really be in disagreement? To borrow The One’s phrase, what “fair-minded words” would be regarded as fair in defense of slavery?

Fox News has the full transcript. I expected a somewhat divided crowd, but watch the very beginning of the speech at Greg Hengler’s site and note how “raucous” the reception was. It stayed that way during the most controversial part of the day, when Obama got his honorary degree: According to the LA Times, “Virtually all of the graduates stood and applauded as Obama received his honorary degree.” I’m giving you two clips, one from CNN of the meat and potatoes about “dialogue” or whatever and the other via Gateway Pundit of the few moments of protest that interrupted him, quickly drowned out by boos and chants from the O-bots in the graduating class. If you’re wondering what your party’s chairman used this occasion to say about abortion — well, no, actually, I don’t think you want to know.