Huff Po: Obama Should Repudiate and Cancel His Gay Bash Tour, and Do It Now

[Synnical]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/obama-should-repudiate-an_b_69244.html

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama ripped a page straight from the Bush campaign playbook with his announced upcoming three date barnstorm tour through South Carolina with notorious gay basher, gospel singer Donnie McClurkin. The Grammy winning black gospel singer's last effort on the political scene was his song and shill for Bush's reelection at the Republican National Convention in 2004. Obama has hitched his string to McClurkin's high flying gay bash kite in part out of religious belief (he purports to be somewhat of an evangelical), in bigger part because he's falling further and further behind Hillary Clinton with the black vote in South Carolina and everywhere else, and in the biggest part of all because he hopes that what worked for Bush's reelection will work for him.

Enter McClurkin. He's black, he's popular, and gospel plays big with blacks in South Carolina, especially black evangelicals, and many of them openly and even more of them quietly loathe gays.

Bush masterfully tapped that homophobic sentiment in 2000 in part with McClurkin and even more masterfully in 2004 again with McClurkin and the top gun mega black preachers in Ohio and Florida. He tapped it so masterfully that Bush's naked pander to gay bashing with the GOP spawned anti-gay marriage initiative in Ohio did much to win over a big chunk of black evangelical leaning voter to Bush.

In fact, the great untold story of the 2004 presidential elections was the black evangelical vote.

More at link

[Kingshakabobo]

1. Fuck Obama.

[Seen the light]

2. Do we know yet if Obama knew of McClurkin and his views specifically? nt

[trotsky]

4. From the article:

The Grammy winning black gospel singer's last effort on the political scene was his song and shill for Bush's reelection at the Republican National Convention in 2004.

How could Obama NOT know?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

8. It's possible that he wasn't aware of his views on homosexuality. nt

[Toasterlad]

11. True. It's Not Like Presidential Candidates Have Staffs to Look Into People's Backgrounds.

How could Obama possibly find out that BOOKS have been written about this guy and his hatred of his own - not to mention MY - sexuality?

I guess it's okay if he DID know, though...after all, Don doesn't want to KILL me...he just wants to FIX me.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

22. It's not like Senators have staffs to look into justifications for attacking Iraq

Though 4 of the Pres candidates who were in the Senate voted yes on the IWR. Obama knew back in 2002 that the war was bullshit and very capably laid out the reasons why.

But I guess if a campaign fails to thoroughly vet some fucking bozo gospel singer, that outweighs everything. Don't even bother to wait and see how he handles it. Just ass-ume whatever you will.

What the fuck ever. Enjoy the march to Iran with Hillary. Who is known to have attended many prayer meetings with Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum. Guess her staff never briefed her about him.

[Toasterlad]

27. Oh, No She DIdn't!

Do NOT assume that just because I'm not an Obama fan that I'm down with Hillary. I dislike them both. I'm a Dennis* man.

*:loveya:

[RB TexLa]

23. You don't run for president and not try to win. He will "find out" about the guy from his staff

after the SC primary and denounce him.

[John Gauger]

37. And that's how we play the game. n/t

[madeline_con]

31. Hear! Hear!

and DUH on the staff comment. :hi:

[trotsky]

12. Oh please.

Obama has egg on his face and all his devoted followers can do is make up lame excuses for him.

He knows about those bigoted views now, right? Do you agree that the appropriate action would be to come forth and denounce them? How long shall we give Obama to do this? Or do we just tell our homosexual friends to get off the bus, they aren't welcome in Obama's "evangelical" movement?

[Seen the light]

15. This is the first I've heard about it...on a Sunday night

I'm sure it will become an issue that Senator Obama will respond to in some capacity tomorrow.

I'm an Obama supporter and I think he should and he will jettison this McCurkle very quickly. If he doesn't, I will be very disappointed.

[trotsky]

21. You'll be very disappointed...

but will you still support his candidacy?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

19. He should denounce them and so should Senator Clinton

Considering he entertained and campaigned for her and her husband as well. And no, she doesn't get a pass because "It was a long time ago!" or "But he wasn't a known homophobe then!" There's no statute of limitations. She should be aware of his views now and denounce him for them.

[trotsky]

20. Totally agree.

Democrats are supposed to be better than this. It's not worth sacrificing our core principles.

[Kingshakabobo]

24. The old "Clinton did it" gambit - "Not just for republicans anymore."

[mrreowwr_kittty]

32. The old "accuse anyone who points out anything unflattering about Clinton of being a freeper" gambit

[Kingshakabobo]

33. I didn't accuse you of being a freeper. I guess you couldn't grasp the "not just for" concept.

[cuke]

38. And please note, at first, it was "Obama didnt know"

Now, its "Clinton did it too"

[blondeatlast]

16. If he isn't, then he's too damn ignorant/stupid to be president.

FWIW, I'm an undecided voter, but this makes me a little less undecided unless he changes his mind.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

17. Well then the same can be said for HRC and her failure to vet contributors

Martin Hsu? And if Barack Obama, with his impressive list of educational and professional credentials is "ignorant/stupid" to you, I don't know who would fulfill your mighty standards.

[blondeatlast]

34. It speaks to whom he's going for advice.

IF they can't vet a campaign staff well, I shudder to think of the cabinet he'd put together.

Meither he nor HRC is anywhere near my top tier, btw.

[pnwmom]

3. Oh geez. This is bad news. n/t

[orpupilofnature57]

5. I got my head bit off for calling him a 'Media Treat' last year, this year

has proved it.He has shown himself as part of a group I Loathe ,Centrists.

[rwheeler31]

6. No thank you, that propoganda don't work.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

7. This dude lost me when he claimed a "large chunk" of Black evangelicals voted for Bush

Please. First of all, Kerry WON Ohio. He got more votes than Bush, even among white males, according to the exit polls. Kerry got 88% of the Black vote. There's no way Bush got anything resembling a "chunk" of Black voters in Ohio. They stole it, plain and simple.

[orpupilofnature57]

10. And it wasn't the first or the worst time either ,since 2000 Misanthropy has

ruled the day.

[Toasterlad]

9. Message Received, Obama. And Right Back at Ya.

Even your fag-hatin' god couldn't make me vote for you.

[Tektonik]

13. .

:applause:

[orpupilofnature57]

14. You never heard or read Jesus single out homosexuals ,Obama's god..

is a centrist and Oprah.

[Generator]

18. Up next: Zell Miller

I think Obama should tour will all the speakers from the RNC convention of 2004. He's found a way to do triangulation as well as Hillary! Snap'em up and put them to work! We need pro-Bush, anti-liberal, anti-gay folks on OUR side dammit! They don't change their positions-we do. It's brilliant isn't it?

And HATS OFF to the candidates-they are even more cynical than ME! Who knew that was possible?

[Golden Raisin]

25. It's not just McClurkin.

Obama committed a double-header of shit. Snuggling up to any religious group (fundies or others) is not something I want from my elected officials or candidates. He/they can believe whatever he wants and worship however he wants --- but do it in private and don't bring it into the campaign. The last 7 years have taught us bitterly and exactly what lack of separation of church and state wreaks when not enforced. If Obama didn't personally know about McClurkin then his staffers failed Obama miserably. And like Truman said, we all know where the buck ends.

[Tyler Durden]

26. I can't believe anyone gay still supports this man.

Of course, I wrote him off the first time he started kissing the collective fundamentalists' ass with his "Faith" stuff.

GOD I wish Al would run.

[earth mom]

28. And yet, Oprah supports Obama. Yikes.

:puke:

[Gloria]

29. Is this supposed to be some sort of twisted or reversed Sister Souljah moment

for Obama?? It just has something Clintonian about it....so much for the new politics....

[madeline_con]

30. Pedolphilia leads to gay bashing?

This McClurkin needs someone to sit him down and explain a few things to him.

[noonwitch]

35. I like McClurkin's music and I never heard any of this.

I really don't care, to be honest. I will still enjoy his music.

From what I've read today, he once was gay, and now isn't. He claims that sexual abuse as a child made him gay, and that christian counseling helped him be straight. I know that it isn't considered politically correct and that psychologists say that being sexually abused is not why someone is gay or straight, but really, there's no evidence, one way or another. The professional stance is a matter of political correctness.

Personally and professionally, I think it is wrong to rule out child abuse as a contributing factor to one's sexual orientation in every case presented. The individual needs to explore that possibility in a non-judgemental therapuetic situation, and decide for him or herself how much, if at all, their childhood experiences affect the adult personality.

But if it is possible for a man to live a straight life and "come out" at the age of 45, as one of my friends once did, wouldn't it also be possible for someone to live a gay life and "come out" as a straight person later in life? He's not a child or teen with homophobic parents forcing him into being straight, he chose this on his own.

[Synnical]

36. Okay, that's your opinion, is it?

Are you a mental health care professional?

'Cause what just wrote is so, well, wrong.