During his victory speech, Obama said, “…to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president, too.”
It was a brilliant line, one that was surely dismissed by those for whom it was intended. The Hillary supporters who abstained or voted McCain in protest, or the Palin groupies who want the U.S. of A to be a Christian Theocracy, both believed Obama was an empty suit: a man full of beautiful rhetoric without the substance to back it up. To them, his words were meaningless.
However, he’s been going out of his way to prove that he wasn’t just blowing smoke. First, he lobbied for the redemption of Lieberman, the Democratic Party’s Benedict Arnold. Then, he kept Robert Gates on as Secretary of Defense, and named Republicans Ray LaHood and Mary Schapiro to the cabinet (as an aside, YAY NANCY SUTLEY!) There’s been a lot of liberal grumbling over Obama’s attempts to reach across the aisle, but nothing compared to his choice on a Pastor to preside over the inauguration invocation.
There’s little I can say about Pastor Rick Warren that hasn’t already been said. He wrote “A Purpose Driven Life,” which was instrumental in bringing the Atlanta murderer and hostage taker Brian Nichols to justice (Baptist Press, Hostage Reads ‘Purpose Driven Life’ to Alleged Atlanta Killer, March 14, 2005). He is the senior pastor for an evangelical mega-church in California.
He used his considerable clout to lobby for Proposition 8, and believes that homosexuality doesn’t qualify as a human right because it is not natural. He also doesn’t allow gays to worship at his church. I guess he missed that part in the book of Matthew about loving your enemies (Verse 5:44, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”)
Pastor Rick falls in line with the disturbing trend of Christians to cry discrimination whenever someone disagrees with them. He fears that Christians who speak against gay marriage will be prosecuted for “hate-speech.” He calls us “Christ-o-phobes.”
The LGBT community is outraged, and the talking heads are squeezing this juicy story for all it’s worth.
So why isn’t Obama and his staff freaking out about the fervor over Ricky-poo? Simple. Like an abusive husband and his co-dependent wife, Obama knows we’ll be back. What choice do we have?
On the other hand, he’s got a country full of conservatives who still need convincing. This is a center right country, and it’s necessary that he at least diffuse the concerns of the Christian right for him to be an effective president. They’ve seen his attempts to reach across the aisle, and have responded with a collective, “That’s all you’ve got?” They want to see him reach out to Christians, not just Republicans.
Enter Rick Warren. The Obama team is smart, and they know that conservatives of all shades love Pastor Warren. He’s in line with the major conservative Christian views, yet he has crossover appeal because he writes books, believes in global warming, and works to end global hunger, illiteracy, and AIDS.
Of course, there are plenty conservative preachers with crossover appeal, but the Warren pick is especially brilliant. See, just picking the Good Pastor to do his inauguration invocation would not be enough to convince the conservatives he’s sincere. Most would see it as we do—a transparent attempt to garner favor with conservatives. That is why Pastor Warren is such an outstanding choice.
Obama knew that choosing Rick Warren would anger the left. More importantly, it would anger a relatively small section of the left—the gays and their allies. He knew that we would be vocal about our discontent, and would demand that Obama rescind his invitation. He also knew that he would refuse to do so. This refusal gives Obama legitimacy with the conservative right: It shows that he’s willing to stand up to the far left while embracing the far right. Our outrage played right into his well orchestrated plan. We’ve been played, ya’ll.
However, I’m not sure it’s such a bad thing. This move has conservative kook Pat Robertson saying:
“I am remarkably pleased with Obama. I had grave misgivings about him. But so help me, he’s come in forcefully, intelligently. He’s picked a middle of the road Cabinet. And so far, if he continues down this course, he has the makings of a great president.” (Quote from a recent CNN interview with Suzanne Malveaux, transcript courtesy of the Huffington Post. If you’re not hip to Pat Robertson, be sure to check out the Wikipedia page dedicated to his controversies!)
If this move has Pat Robertson convinced Obama’s got what it takes to change this country, then he will certainly come into office with enough political capital to actually CHANGE THIS COUNTRY.
He’s making good on his victory speech promise; he’s trying to be everyone’s president. Here’s hoping he doesn’t screw it up.
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2 comments:
I have read extensively and exhaustively Your material, and Have come to a pretty favorable conclusion -You are A hater, a grudge is your best friend, You think much too highly of yourself and not highly enough of others-You're all mixed up inside because you know what is right and what is wrong but you want the right to go away so you can keep doing wrong but the right keeps pushing back and now you begin feelin the guilt,
But you don't want to feel guilt so you push back with more wrong stuff and then you begin to get angry at which point you begin to take it out on others who haven't done anything to you and so it goes in a continuous circle over and over and over-Right wrong, wrong right, right left, left right, and then the marching orders are given, and these by someone you know is even more wrong then you but you like doing the wrong stuff cause it feels so good even though you know it's wrong because your small little inside wanna do right self is telling you it's wrong only to be pushed back into submission once again cause you are arrogant and have way too much pride going on to admit that you could ever be wrong, so you take a turn to the left where there are a bunch more just like you hanging out on the corner, with nothing much to do but feel angry at everyone else too, because they are really angry at themselves and you take comfort in their company and now you can all be angry together each one convincing the other it's ok to be on the side of all that is wrong because what the heck who wants to to the right side of the thing anyway! So you stay on the left, and after awhile your right turn signal just won't work anymore because you never use it and then you forget how to use it and you keep on turning left until you become so lost that nothings fair it just ain't right. You got it Girl it just ain't right! Cause when everything you know is left, And the ONLY thing you know is left! Nothing will ever be right! You just keep makin those left turns baby! We'll all be cheering for ya even though we know you'll never make left, RIGHT! Because like it or not The equation is: (LEFT)=U+WRONG
Wow. It took you 1,722 characters to basically say I'm wrong and you're right. Your handlers at the nuthouse must be so proud of you.
Next time attack me on something substantive and I'll be glad to educate you. The sad thing is that looking at your blog, you either made an entire blog up just to post that to me or you go around and put this comment on liberal blogs. I hope its the former, because that's only slightly less pathetic. If you really think that this rambling run-on paragraph is good enough to showcase, then you are truly sad. Good luck in life. It's obvious you're not going to get far.
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