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But what I'm getting at is do you think Obama has finally seen the handwriting on the wall, that doing everything the abortion lobby tells him to do has its political drawbacks?

Obama, for his part, also apparently chose a dialogue path. On abortion, according to the Vatican press spokesman, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, he reiterated to Benedict his commitment to reduce the number of abortions in America.

That language, noted Georgetown University theology professor Vincent Miller, matched Obama's Notre Dame speech, clearly rejecting the preferred language of advocates of legalized abortion, such as Catholics for Choice, who do not want to speak of reducing abortion numbers but only of reducing the need for abortion -- in other words, of contraceptive or other programs to avoid unwanted pregnancies, with no legal or other restrictions on abortion for pregnant women.

Miller said he thought the president's reference to reducing abortion numbers reflected "a growing awareness by the Obama administration" of the Catholic concerns over abortion, even at a potential cost to his political base.

Although Bill Clinton said much the same thing, "safe, legal and rare" but it hasn't panned out yet.