At some point in the Democrat primaries I thought Barack Obama was a little naive. Obama may give Bill Clinton a run for his money on style.
As you can expect Reverend Jeremiah Wright wasn’t invited since Barack suddenly discovered the public views of his life-long mentor.
So I was assuming Obama would tap one of two types of clergymen. He’d either tap a liberal from the Church of Christ (or some other non-traditional denomination) or he would tap a mainline respected figure in a Protestant or Catholic denomination (I was hoping he’d overlook us Lutherans).
Instead Obama pulled the coup de grâce. He got popular Evangelical pro-life pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation. This is not sitting well with homosexual activists in the Democratic Party.
I’ve got no idea if Obama is genuinely a religious fellow. He certainly expresses his faith in a less clumsy and awkward way than most recent Democrats. Given the public desire for a leader grounded in faith, this is a quite an asset.
We saw some of the stirrings of this in the primaries but I’m surprised to see this continue after Obama no longer needs to appeal to the faithful in America. It’s interesting that he’s risking the fury of homosexuals in a transparent appeal to Evangelicals.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
He’s already thinking about 2012 it seems to me. I bet this is ticking off the gays. Wow!
December 17th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Actually, it’s not tradition for the President’s pastor to deliver the invocation. Franklin Graham and Kirbyjohn Caldwell did in 2000, and Kirbyjohn did it in 2004. Billy Graham did it for Bill Clinton in 1992. Warren is a surprising choice.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
#2, ah my mistake. Still an interesting and controversial invocation choice for a liberal Democrat.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
You ought to fix it, I imagine, Doug.
This is indeed a weird choice. It’s akin to having Huckabee do it, quite honestly, if we’re going solely by political beliefs.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Its an “inclusive” pick. Showing the “broad tent” that Obama is.
Having mocked that with quote marks, one has to say that he is handling himself impressively. One can frame it in political terms (2012) but its nice to see all the same.
December 18th, 2008 at 8:50 am
I believe that Obama is friends with Warren and they have an ongoing relationship. Warren has stated that several times.
Hopefully Warren can keep working on Obama regarding the life issue. Warren expressed it rather nicely during an interview after his forum. He went on to say that there are no are no unplanned pregnancies, just unplanned parents. That God has a plan for each life, and that by aborting that life, God’s plan is not fulfilled. He went on to talk about adoption and the need to promote the life issue. Hopefully he can use his relationship with Obama to stress the LIFE issue and stop Obama from signing the FOCA in 2009.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I’m actually immpressed with this move.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:03 am
This highlights my hope for the Obama presidency. He is an extremely skilled politician, and one that I believe has his sights set on an outstanding legacy. We’ve all seen how being the president of 52% of the population and giving the finger to the other 48% works out in the last regime. I think if anyone is upset about this man’s presidency it will be the hard-core leftists.
December 18th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Live in the Bay Area (SF) and the morning talk show is lit up by the far left that are upset with this choice. Especially due to his ardent support of prop 8.
December 18th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
No one was more critical of Obama and his 20 year pew parked butt, but I also think he is a man seeking God, and that this gesture is great for America.