Reply #10: The reason why I thought it made tactical sense...

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Rove, started a stealth campaign in 2003 to target Christian conservative African-American voters. The neoconservatives badly want the African-American Christian conservative vote because they believe they can permanently break the Democratic party by creating a rift between Blacks and gays--they are mimicking the tactic used by the Christian Coalition in 1980, which split staunch pro-labor Catholics from the party over abortion.

Both McClurkin and Kirbyjon Caldwell were used by the Bush Administration to stump for Republicans, so there was no way of "not knowing" what these two men stood for. Rove planted a Christian magazine insert (called Both Sides, if I remember) into newspapers in African-American neighborhoods (I saw images of this insert in 2004, I even linked to it a few months back but the link now forwards to a new, glossy Christian website) that proclaimed that gay people intended to destroy the civil rights legacy by mocking it and something must be done about it. Many older African-Americans were enraged and some in the community began to interpret pro-gay as anti-black history.

Obama needed to win big in SC-- an enormous African-American voting block. He needed to motivate his base at all costs. When Obama was confronted by gay African-American ministers who begged him to speak on his behalf, Obama chose a white preacher a huge insult to Black gays who'd be working for years to show their own community that being gay isn't a 'white perversion.' Worse still, after the whole discussion/encounter, Obama decided to let McClurkin emcee.

The whole brouhaha did nothing but help Obama with the group he was intending to target. He sent a message that, although he disagreed with discrimination, he wasn't going to let the gays push him around.

It may have been smart politics, but for some of us--especially the African-Americans in the community--it was in instance of being politically used and ultimately excluded, which, of course, is exacerbated by the themes of Hope and Unity.

If Obama hadn't done this, I would be voting for him in the primaries because I really don't like Clinton. I may vote for Clinton now. Or I may vote for Edwards as a write-in.