President Obama seems to have stepped into quicksand with his telephone call to the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles praising the decision to hire Michael Vick. Among animal lovers (a very substantial voting bloc -- perhaps even rivaling football fans), Vick remains anathema. It is one thing to get drunk and do something bad, but torturing dogs for fun suggests a deepoer disturbance, a kind of brokenness it is hard to imagine healing. Obama's praise was related to the notion of giving criminals "a second chance," but in the LA Times: Bill Smith, the founder of Main Line Animal Rescue in the Philadelphia area, bristled at Obama's characterization that the Eagles' signing of Vick was motivated by wanting to give a convicted felon a second chance."If he couldn't throw a football, he wouldn't have had a second chance," said Smith, who organized a campaign last season to collect food for animal shelters every time Vick was sacked on the field. "This isn't about...(Read Full Post)