Indeed, I think his duplicity is most pronounced on the issue of abortion. On the one hand, he champions a mother's right to destroy her baby in the womb, presumably believing it is not a human life. But on the other, he says the decision of whether to abort has both moral and spiritual dimensions. But if the unborn is not a human life, what moral or spiritual components are involved?

Truth be told, it's hard to escape the conclusion that Obama, like other extreme pro-abortion advocates, doesn't care much whether the unborn is a human life, because he has strongly endorsed partial-birth abortion, which occurs at a stage at which even the most morally darkened soul couldn't deny the baby is fully human. And he argued passionately against Illinois legislation that would have provided for medical protection to babies already born as a result of failed abortions.

He says he wants to "honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion," yet he reportedly intends to reverse a Bush regulation to protect health care professionals who refuse, as a matter of conscience, to perform abortions.

He says he wants to work together to reduce abortions but has signed an executive order restoring funding for overseas abortion providers, which will necessarily increase abortions. So will his appointing judges who will uphold Roe v. Wade and continue preventing states from democratically deciding this issue. Neither act is a demonstration of respect for the opposing view or an avenue toward common ground.

The only ground Obama will join us on is the real estate on which he is standing, firmly and immovably, especially on abortion. He understands that ultimately there can be no common ground about the life of a baby. Those purporting to lobby for it are demanding that we turn the wisdom of Solomon on its head and split the baby in half -- literally.

Obama won't talk straight about the horrors of abortion -- or most of the rest of his agenda -- because if exposed to the disinfecting light of day, it would be stopped dead in its tracks.