Common ground

President Obama said at Notre Dame that, since the views of the two camps in the abortion debare are "irreconcilable," we need to at least stop demonizing one another and reducing those with differing views to caricature. I was with him on that, but then he said:

"Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words. It's a way of life that always has been the Notre Dame tradition."

"Fair-minded words," certainly. Let's keep the discussion civil and rational. "Open hearts," absolutely. We can still respect people with whom we have profound differences. But an "open mind" is for issues on which all the facts are not yet in. We wait to make a judgment until we know all the facts and have considered their implications sufficiently. But on an issue such as abortion, where our differences are "irreconcilable," there really isn't much dispute about the facts. Where we differ is on a deep philosophical and/or moral level that no amount of open-mindedness is going to touch. It is possible to change one's philosophy -- indeed, most people's views change gradually over time. But that's a matter of adjusting world views based on world experience, not yielding to superior rhetorical skills.

The president is also right about the way to tackle our most intractable differences:

Maybe we won't agree on abortion, but we can agree this heart-wrenching decision for any woman is not made casually, but with both moral and spiritual dimensions. So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions," Obama said to applause.

When two sides have profound differences, it is often useful to walk the disagreement back to a point where they agree on somehing -- what Obama would call "common ground." My former boss here also once worked on Capitol Hill, and he said that was a lesson on reaching consensus he learned from Sen. Richard Lugar, who used the approach on foreign policy questions.

But even in that approach, there are possible pitfalls. As Obama notes, everyone in the abortion debate can probably agree that reducing unwanted pregnancies is the best way to avoid the whole issue. But even on this, there are profound differences. Those strongly against abortion tend to favor things like abstinence, while the pro-choice side wants more birth control. And they can be just as p