John Aravosis supports Obama re: Kirbyjon Caldwell

[geek tragedy]

Obama's relations with the gay community were off to a great start yesterday morning. Obama had just addressed the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, MLK's own church (text of the speech and video here), and Obama went out of his way in the speech to call the black community to task for having "scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them."

Not bad, considering candidates don't usually admonish their own in order to get votes.

've talked to the Obama campaign about this, and they assure me of a few things:

1. Caldwell has not, and will not, be asked to do anything for the campaign (and this means, we hope, that Obama won't be doing appearances with the man any time soon).
2. Caldwell was simply wrong when he told the papers this weekend that the campaign asked him to travel around the country on their behalf. In other words, Caldwell was freelancing when he called the paper for an interview.

The reason the McClurkin controversy really got my goat wasn't that Obama had scheduled a homophobic superstar to emcee a campaign event. (I doubt Obama knew about McClurkin's dark side when the event was scheduled.) What bothered me was that even after Obama learned that McClurkin was a real jerk he still kept him on the schedule (and surprise, surprise, McClurkin then spent half an hour at the event railing against gays). From what we know, Caldwell isn't McClurkin - Caldwell may embrace the "ex-gays," but he's not an ex-gay leader like McClurkin (though I'm not going to give the guy any PFLAG awards). But more importantly, Caldwell doesn't appear to have any role at all in the Obama campaign, nor will he (though he did appear previously at a few Obama events). If that's true, and coming on the heels of Obama's rather gutsy pro-gay comments at MLK's church yesterday morning, I'm a lot less troubled by this controversy than I was the previous.

Bottom line: Obama gets some some major chits for what he did yesterday morning, and with that in mind, I think on this one we can give him a pass.

UPDATE: A reader emailed me this link, noting that Caldwell was invited by Obama's campaign to appear at the McClurkin fundraiser. I knew that already, and the campaign didn't lie to me about it - in fact they acknowledged that he was there. But, the issue isn't what the campaign did before they knew he was a problem, the issue is what they do now. If they say he's not going to be asked to do anything for the campaign, until proven otherwise, that's a darn good answer.

http://www.americablog.com/2008/01/obama-and-gays-again.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[geek tragedy]

2. I wonder if the folks with Hillary avatars will continue

to showcase their canned outrage.

[stillcool]

11. It's what they do...

over and over, and over and over. Manufacturing reality seems to require a lot of posters regurgitating the exact same thing.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. Good.

[BeyondGeography]

4. No agonizing over the word "embrace" like the hyperventilators were doing last night?

Obama's comments were gutsy. Good to see his fiercest critic on McClurkin acknowledge that

[ruggerson]

5. Already posted:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4144647&mesg_id=4144647

[BeyondGeography]

6. With a thread title that buries the lede

but thanks anyway for all of your help.

[ruggerson]

7. Read the lead line in the OP

[geek tragedy]

9. The real story is that Caldwell is a non-story.

And the people who were ready to burn Obama at the stake were severely premature in their outrage.

Or, in the case of the people with Hillary avatars, just spouting off canned outrage.

[Bluebear]

17. Here we go again "canned" outrage. "Faux" outrage. Any outrage that isn't YOURS.

[geek tragedy]

18. When the outrage isn't born out by the facts, it's

either premature (non Hillary supporters) or canned (Hillary supporters trying to use LGBT issues to score cheap points).

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

8. K&R

[Perky]

10. Thank you...I have been saying the same thing since the story broke

[DURHAM D]

12. After this coming Saturday Obama will begin a series of lies

and spins to try and pull back from his cynical use of gays and lesbians as a wedge issue.

[geek tragedy]

13. Thank you for not bothering to read the post.

Ignorance is bliss.

[DURHAM D]

19. I read it - so what

A former Repub Hillary hating dude doesn't speak for me. I can't help it that his man crush is blinding him.

[geek tragedy]

21. So, you just don't care about the facts.

You're just getting your hate on for Obama, despite the fact that Obama's campaign wants nothing to do with Caldwell.

And Aravosis roasted Obama alive for McClurkin.

My ignore list grows again.

[More Than A Feeling]

14. Well, that's a relief!

I didn't relish the thought of one of our candidates being that dense. I guess Obama has learned something after all (though there is still the issue of this guy being GWB's "spiritual advisor" that isn't nearly as bad)

[Cha]

15. I feel bad that all this

came about but I'm still supporting Obama in his fight for the presidency.

[geek tragedy]

16. This shows Obama learned from

McClurkin and won't be using bigots to pander.

[Cha]

22. That's another thing I like about

him..he learns..he's not crazy doin' the same thing over and over again that doesn't work.

[sandnsea]

20. Caldwell's is the largest Methodist Church in the country

If somebody doesn't start challenging their views, gays are going to be in a world of hurt in ten years. Obama is doing the right thing here and continues to do it despite taking so much heat from the GLBT community.

[xchrom]

23. you don't get kudos for not being a racist -- you don't get kudos for not being

or standing with a homophobe.

that's what you're supposed to do -- especially if you're a dem.

lecturing the african american community on their homophobia is another stab at getting past donnie.

with no apology forthcoming.

[geek tragedy]

25. I await all of the "I was wrong to prematurely bash Obama

over Caldwell" threads from the usual suspects.

[Perky]

24. Kicking because it is the truth.