Many news outlets are now reporting on President Obama's policy on contraception.  In my view, most are missing the point, but that may even be part of the point.  The Huffington Post describes the president's "accomodation," while ABC said the president 'blinked,' the Daily Beast claims he 'fumbled,' and Fox News chose to continue to blast the president for seeking to infringe on religious liberty.  Only CNN chose to report the story as a presidential effort to forge a compromise.

The president has claimed since he wrote Audacity, long before he even formed a campaign to run for president, that one of his priorities was to fix the beltway dysfunctionalism.  To to this he has been fairly consistent in his efforts to reach across the aisle, frequently alienating his base by embracing Republican ideas (like the individual mandate in place of a single-payer plan). 

As an election approaches, it is unlikely that the president's pathway to compromise with the hard right refusniks will become any easier.  So it is important for him to continue to find ways to avoid dysfunction (that is, get policies passed) and to do so in ways that will  make it clear to voters (including moderate Catholic voters) that he is the moderate, middle-of-the-road leader willing and able to reach across the aisle.

With that in mind, to the degree that the most conservative Catholic leaders are focusing their anger on opposing a position that super majorities of Catholic voters agree with (and not just in the abstract, since most actually use birth control)...this can only help single the president (as well as moderate and liberal Catholic leaders) out as the reasonable minds, the moderates willing to work together for reasonable compromises that work. 

This strikes me as nothing like a fumble or blink or "accomodation," but as a well designed compromise that secures a good policy outcome for women's health care, respects the religious concerns of the all but the most extreme Catholic leaders, and demonstrates that compromise is possible.