5/18 Roundup: The Fightin’ Irish, The Tamil Tigers, Barack Obama, Soccer Dad

Leader: The Fightin’ Irish

- President Obama gave the commencement address at Notre Dame yesterday, and took on the issue of abortion, which had caused some members of the Fightin’ Irish community to boycott or protest his speech. He called for “open hearts, open minds, and fair-minded words.” The cheers drowned out the protestors.

- Ed Kilgore takes a good look at the brouhaha, and finds that the disagreement is more a divide within the Catholic Church, than a divide between the church and everyone else. He takes a deep dive on opinion polls:

Catholics are no more likely to be “morally opposed” to abortion than other Americans. According to a recent Gallup survey, 40% of Catholics (as compared to 41% of non-Catholics) consider abortion “morally acceptable.” And that’s not so strange, since the same survey shows 71% of Catholics finding divorce “morally acceptable” (the number is 66% among non-Catholics), with similarly positive moral acceptance levels for pre-marital sex (67%, compared to 57% of non-Catholics), having a child out of wedlock (61%; 52% among non-Catholics) and homosexual relations (54%; 45% of non-Catholics). None of these positions, of course, are in line with contemporary Church doctrine.

Politics

- President Obama swiped Utah governor Jon Huntsman from the GOP, appointing him Ambassador to China.