This hasn't been a great moment for Obama and his campaign. If you missed any of this, Pam writes:
In another attempt to connect with people of faith in South Carolina, presidential hopeful Barack Obama has decided to reach out by going on a concert tour with gospel artists, including known homophobe and recloseted homosexual Donnie McClurkin.
It gets worse from there: John Aravosis:
Surprise, surprise, surprise. Obama’s anti-gay religious right activist used the opportunity Obama gave him last night to preach his hate to thousands of African-Americans. That’s just great. And the white preacher who Obama picked to help explain to the audience that gays aren’t minions of Satan? CNN reports that he said nothing at all - just a short little prayer, then he left.
As for Obama, he did a taped introduction in which he praised McClurkin, the religious right activist, as one of his favorites. That’s nice, because the way to help combat homophobia in the black community is to make sure the gay-basher is first endorsed by someone as high-ranking as Obama, who then chooses to say nothing about the gay-bashing.
So, in the end, Obama let his “best” and “favorite” artist slam gays to thousands of African-Americans, in his name, and neither he nor his hand-chosen white gay preacher said anything in response. Class act, that Obama campaign. For them, creating a “dialogue” means the gay-basher gets to spread his bigotry to thousands while the candidate and the token gay STFU.
Obama's campaign now says that McClurkin only wants to cure the unhappy gays. (The rest of us are, I guess, fine to continue trying to kill America's children.)
Even if he didn't realize what McClurkin's views were and that's quite possible ---he should have done something to take care of the problem. Pam has more...
(***title of post was corrected)
