E.J. Dionne supports Obama's invitation to Rick Warren

[S_E_Fudd]

By DU standards does this now make him a homophobe?

A Gamble for Obama
. . . And a Risk for Rick Warren, Too

By inviting Pastor Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation, President-elect Barack Obama has alienated some of his friends on the left. By accepting, Warren has enraged some of his allies on the right.

Obama and Warren have helped each other in the past, and both know exactly what they're doing.

If you're on the left, how you view Obama's move depends upon who you think Warren is, where you think he's going, and what you think Obama is up to.

...

Recall Warren's 2006 invitation to Obama to come to his Saddleback Church in California for a discussion of the AIDS crisis. The right came down hard on the idea of giving an evangelical platform to this up-and-coming supporter of abortion rights.

...

Warren wouldn't back down and offered ABC News a delightful explanation for his political apostasy. "I'm a pastor, not a politician," Warren said. "People always say, 'Rick, are you right wing or left wing?' I say 'I'm for the whole bird.' " Many liberals hope -- and a lot of conservatives fear -- that the rise of "whole bird" Christianity will break up right-wing dominance in the white evangelical community.

Obama never forgot what Warren did for him and brought the episode up last week in explaining why he had asked the pastor to pray at his inauguration. "A couple of years ago," Obama recalled, "I was invited to Rick Warren's church to speak, despite his awareness that I held views that were entirely contrary to his when it came to gay and lesbian rights, when it came to issues like abortion."

...

Although I support same-sex marriage, I think that liberals should welcome Obama's success in causing so much consternation on the right. On balance, inviting Warren opens more doors than it closes.

Warren has some decisions to make, too. He would do well to apologize for comparing gays to pedophiles and also for comments to Beliefnet deriding mainline Protestants for not caring much "about redemption, the cross, repentance."

...

Yet liberals also need to come to terms with what it means to build a durable majority. Doing so requires not just easy gestures but hard ones. Here's a prayer that this one will be worth the risks it entails.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/22/AR2008122201847.html

[Hellataz]

1. Not by my standard, it makes him a smart man able to see the bigger picture.

[S_E_Fudd]

6. Me too...nt

[No Elephants]

24. What if the bigger picture turns out to be tthat the religoius right draws even more African

Americans away from the Democratic Party and even more gays stop voting Democrat in disgust?

Hello, President Palin?

[Phx_Dem]

29. I agree.

:fistbump:

[NWHarkness]

2. Pandering is not hard

The hard gesture would have been to stand uo firmly in defense of civil rights.

[S_E_Fudd]

8. No...

Actually the easy thing to do would be not to invite him and avoid the controversy that ensued...

[NWHarkness]

10. Exactly

Warren doesn't have a right to the spotlight. I don't see how anyone can not draw the conclusion that Obama sought this controversy.

[S_E_Fudd]

12. Not controversy...

Simply the necessary by product of his true goal...

Anyone who listened to him during the campaign shouldn't be surprised

[NWHarkness]

20. I'm not the least bit surprised

We already saw this show once, with Donnie McClurkin.

[mondo joe]

3. It would seem more serious if the hard gestures weren't so frequenty assigned to GLBT people.

Surely there's enough to go around.

[QC]

19. Funny how that works, isn't it?

Now why isn't Prussian Blue performing at the Inauguration? That would be very reachy outy!

[No Elephants]

4. I don't know if he is a homophobe or not. I know he as wrong on this point as Obama is.

[cali]

5. Let's see: He supports marriage equality. That should at least

say something to you.

[No Elephants]

22. Really? Someone who supports marriage equality can never make a wrong call

on who should be invited to give the invocation at the Inauguration?

Many here and IRL are gay, support gay marriage AND think Obama made a bad call. Why on earth "should" the opinion of a couple of people "say" more to me than the opinion of many? Dionne's opoinion "should" say something to me bc that is the one that happens to conform to yours? Whould it make sense to you if I said Barney Frank's a dyed in the wool Democrat, gay and pro-gay marriage. His opinon "should" say something to you. Why?

For that matter, why ahould anyone's opinion substitute for my independent thought and my own sense of right and wrong? The opinions of others are to be considered when making up your mind on a moral issue, but you still make up your own mind. The majority have been on the wrong side of moral issues from Biblical times to the present.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Obama's outreach effort failed - and he still won.

The evangelical vote, despite Obama's efforts at reaching out to homophobic theocratic fascists, went 76% to the homophobic theocratic fascist party. That was approximately the same as Kerry did.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP... see "white evangelical/born-again".

So what is the next excuse?

[S_E_Fudd]

9. Shows you were not paying attention to him during the campaign...

If you think it is an election strategy...

[Warren Stupidity]

11. Are we discussing the same article you posted?

Or are you now hijacking your own thread?

Dionne has a great theory that unfortunately fails to have an substantiating evidence.

[S_E_Fudd]

14. Yeah I see what you are saying...

Read the whole article...it's more than just about electoral success for its own sake...although that could be a benefit of it...its about reorienting political alliances with the goal of getting something accomplished...

[No Elephants]

25. First, re-orienting does not require honoring Warren with the invocation on Inauguration Day. So,

that point is a total straw man.

Second, political alliances may get reoriented entirely differently than Obama expects. Already, MLK III's church has invited Warren to speak on the anny of MLK Sr's death and a lot of gays are upset. What if the chain reaction is not kumbaya with everyone under the Dem tent, but the religious right drawing away even more Africans and even more gays going third party?

Choosing Warren was a gaffe and it is being dealt with in the wrong way, from the content of Obama's defense of it to the invitation to MLK III's church to suddently appointing someone who is openly gay to an "honorary" position re: the Inauguration ceremonies (but only after everything significant, including Warren, has been not only decided but announced).

A bliind person could see through all three of those things. When Obama promnised to be transparent, this is not exactly what I thought he meant.

[No Elephants]

23. He campaigned on inviting Warren to give the invocation at the Inauguration? Huh.

[marylanddem]

13. ugh. another apologist for this abysmal decision.

[cali]

15. or someone who just see things differently from you.

shocking isn't it?

[Bodhi BloodWave]

17. some people are not willing to try and look at the larger picture sadly enough

much easier to point and be loud then actually stop up and try to talk in a civil way with ones opponents

[Skittles]

28. his opinion is different, but he is still just another apologist

stop twisting yourself into a pretzel trying to defend this hideous pick - it is fucking unbecoming

[HamdenRice]

16. Obama is going to "Nixon" the Repugs with this

He's building a permanent majority. If he peels off some of the evangelicals, what's left of the Republican base?

This is the most dangerous political gambit the Repugs have ever faced. No wonder they've been using surrogates to stir shit up in the liberal blogosphere!

[NWHarkness]

21. That's quite an accusation

Are you willing to name any of these Republican "surrogates"?

[depakid]

18. Just another disingenuous Post writer

Pretty much goes with the territory at that rag....

[otohara]

27. Yep - Dionne Somewhat of A Wimp Also

but we like Eugene Robinson, right?

[ieoeja]

26. Who do you think recommended McClurkin to Obama?

E.J. Dionne seems to have a thing for anti-gay preachers. His recommendation, along with McClurkin's past association with the Clintons, is what convinced Obama that McKlurkin would make a great headliner for his fund-raiser.