Before the sayings of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright created a national controversy last week, Obama had tipped his hand on where he stood relevant to the Founders' and King's vision of justice.

At a Sunday morning event in Nelsonville, Ohio, earlier this month, for example, he explained why he favors legalized abortion.

He implicitly conceded there is something wrong with abortion, which he said has "a real moral element." But, he concluded, "in the end I think women, in consultation with their pastors, and their doctors, and their family, are in a better position to make these decisions than some bureaucrat in Washington."

That is like saying segregation had a "real moral element" but in end should have been left up to states, local communities and businesses.

On Feb. 28, Obama released an open letter to the "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender" community. "I support the complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act," he said. That would mean states would not be protected from having to recognize same-sex marriages codified in Massachusetts or elsewhere.

"As your president," he said, "I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws."

The people who would be bullied by this policy are children who would be thrown -- by edict of the government -- into same-sex unions in which nature itself would never have placed them.

No matter how persistently Obama invokes the rhetoric of national unity and reconciliation, the heart of the country will rebel against the very real consequence that his policies will harm the most vulnerable Americans of all.