The XX Factor: What women really think.

The Bipartisan Blues

E.J.,

I agree. Obama’s decision to ask Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration shows exactly what happens when bipartisanship becomes an end in itself. The president-elect continues to confuse reaching across the aisle with being principled. Sometimes the principle is just too important to compromise. Both Obama and Warren are to be credited for reaching out across the chasm that separates liberals and evangelicals in America. Each has signaled a willingness to talk and—to their huge credit—to listen to ideas different from their own. But as you explain, Warren’s views on women, stem-cell research, and homosexuality are not moderate. He doesn’t even dress them up as moderate!

If Obama wanted to signal his continued respect for Warren and for religious Americans, he could have done so in a thousand ways that would have welcomed them into the tent, without banishing and insulting those already inside.