"Obama Squanders the High Ground" ("Clumsy, insulting, cynical")

[Bluebear]

By: PAUL SCHINDLER
11/01/2007

As he mounted the stage to deliver the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama was really only just becoming known in his own home state, despite the fact that he was poised for election three months later to the US Senate from Illinois. The speech, of course, was a tour de force, eloquent in delivery and in substance, instantly branding him as America's apostle of "the audacity of hope."...

But for LGBT Americans, the past week has been marked by Obama's crushing of hope. And for every American concerned about the bitterness and divisiveness of our politics in the past generation, the episode raises troubling questions about whether the Illinois senator has the courage and grace to prove the uniter he postures to be.

In this issue and last, Doug Ireland reported in detail about Obama's engagement of an "ex-gay" gospel singer and preacher as part of a vote push among evangelical African Americans in the critical early South Carolina primary.

Laying his years of active homosexuality to two childhood rapes, Donnie McClurkin has declared "war" against "the curse" of gay life. In an appearance on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" several years ago, he said, "I'm in no mood to play with those who are trying to kill our children."

Making a call about this guy should be easy. He's a divider - an unusually ugly one at that. He's got no place in a political campaign, certainly not one predicated on hope....

A letter from prominent LGBT and African-American faith leaders supporting Obama, posted on his Web site, is, unfortunately, even more disingenuous.

"Would we prefer a candidate who ignores the realities in the African-American community and cuts off millions of Blacks who believe things offensive to many Americans?" the letter reads in part.

No serious gay political leader thinks our community or the Democrats can afford not to engage evangelical blacks or any other voting group reluctant to view the world the way we do. But there are all manner of African-American faith leaders, gay and not, fully supportive of LGBT rights and more agnostic, who could play a wide variety of roles in helping Obama frame a dialogue across these cultural lines.

But to offer up Donnie McClurkin as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, and then suggest that gay Americans unhappy at the prospect of him being a ringleader in Obama's "big tent" are culturally insensitive is flat out wrong. It is clumsy. It is insulting. And it is cynical.

http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18978873&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=569328&rfi=6

[IndianaJones]

1. but it is a progressive virtue to reach out to those that hate you. nt.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. Worked for the indians!

[IndianaJones]

7. liberals and progressives love to call themselves liberals and progressives. nt.

[Cha]

44. Well, maybe that's not such

a good example of "reaching out" and having it end well.

Let's see?..hmmm?..

[aquart]

4. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[MethuenProgressive]

33. I see all the Obama supporters have scurried away from this issue.

Not even his most besotted fans are still trying to defend the indefensible.

[babylonsister]

2. I hope you like most of us, because you can sure express your ire. nt

[Bluebear]

5. Do you have any doubt that I like you? Have we ever disagreed here before, babylonsister?

[babylonsister]

21. None at all, my friend. But I haven't expressed myself in your threads.

I do remember you saying at one point that when you latch on to something that pisses you off, you stay with it.
No kidding! And that's all I'll say on that topic.

:pals:

[Bluebear]

26. Phew.

You are one ally I wouldn't want to irritate :hug:

Truthfully, the reason I posted the two threads tonight was because of someone saying ...AGAIN...that the story was over, no traction, not relevant, whatever, and it raised my hackles, whatever they are lol.

[babylonsister]

27. Well get over your 'phew' because that might have been me.

And I'm only telling you that because I'm honest. And I don't want to argue, especially with you and this late. And I have also tried to steer clear.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3674364

:hide:

And look at it this way-this is now kicked!

[Bluebear]

29. I saw it

I have no trouble with Obama supporters. I would never presume to call them bigots etc. Truly I agree with your assessment that he got bad advice, I am only disappointed in the way he let it play out. The difference with you is you never told me I was too sensitive, or to get over it, or excuse the incident away.

As I told katzenkavalier when he said he rarely agreed with me, we will all be coalescing around one nominee soon enough, and personally I can't wait, WHOEVER it is! :)

[babylonsister]

30. You reinforced why I love you!

What a great answer for me. I sometimes express my opinion and get beaten up to the point where I'm afraid to admit how I think. Or, people can get so virulent that they feel toxic to me so I cannot even go there. Thank you for your measured response, even though you do like to rile up the masses!

:D :hug:

Edit to change something. :mad:

[ruggerson]

6. nothing like a lot of REALLY pissed off gay people

Obama dug his own grave.

[Bluebear]

9. I keep getting told the story "won't matter outside DU"

Yet more pieces are being written!

[ruggerson]

10. I hear it IRL

I actually had a couple of straight friends bring it up this week.

[Bluebear]

12. Straight friends have emailed the story to *me*!

"Have you seen this?" :)

[Chovexani]

16. You mean like these guys?

[ruggerson]

18. those are great shots

n/t

[Chovexani]

20. Aren't they?

I love the Google.

[Bluebear]

22. Last week someone was lecturing me that "you gays need to march on Washington!"

"You need to start fighting for your rights if stuff like this concert bothers you!" As if we have no history of doing so.

:crazy:

[ruggerson]

23. That was either Ethel Kaye or Flaxie Bee

I look back on their time here with great nostalgia

[Bluebear]

24. ...

:spray: stop :)

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

43. good times...

[ruggerson]

8. But he was "engaging" everybody

n/t

[IndianaJones]

11. Does every one of you peoples threads get rec'd to greatest? I smell a conspiracy. nt.

[Bluebear]

13. :) There must be more of "the gays" & their allies than people realized.

[ruggerson]

14. toasters, dude.

toasters.

[Solon]

28. Toasters?!?!?! I was promised a microwave oven!

Dammit! x(

[Chovexani]

17. The Gay Gestapo has its ways.

:yoiks:

[sniffa]

34. did you not get the memo - it's the gaystapo now.

[NMMNG]

41. No d00d, it's a jihad

We're moving up in the world. :evilgrin:

[BlueIris]

15. This post seems to imply that Obama actually possessed the high ground at some point.

Which is kind of a stretch for me.

[John Q. Citizen]

19. Kucinich is the only one running who isn't a hypocrite, BB. The only one.

[silverojo]

31. He's the BIGGEST one

He carried a handgun when he feared for his own personal safety. Yet now, he wants to ban handguns (=now that he doesn't need one anymore).

Don't deny us the basic right that you took advantage of, Dennis. :mad:

[John Q. Citizen]

36. I didn't realize the mafia has a contract out on you, silverojo.

[incapsulated]

25. The part you bolded really sums it up

Succinctly for people who don't get it.

Although at this point just repeating it over and over isn't really going to change any minds, just start more fighting.

[MethuenProgressive]

32. Obama.. culturally insensitive.. flat out wrong.. clumsy.. insulting.. cynical.

"But to offer up Donnie McClurkin as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, and then suggest that gay Americans unhappy at the prospect of him being a ringleader in Obama's "big tent" are culturally insensitive is flat out wrong. It is clumsy. It is insulting. And it is cynical."

:kick:

[terrya]

35. Here's the quote that I picked up on from that excellent article:

"But there are all manner of African-American faith leaders, gay and not, fully supportive of LGBT rights and more agnostic, who could play a wide variety of roles in helping Obama frame a dialogue across these cultural lines"

There you go. That's what needs to be said about this sorry mess. After the campaign was told, in no uncertain terms by the GLBT community how offensive McClurkin is, they had a chance. They had a chance to reach out to the evangelical African-Americans AND do so in a way that was supportive to ALL. Most assuredly including our community. But no...the campaign refused. Refused to dump McClurkin. Cynically adding a white gay minister (who left immediately after giving a prayer). And McClurkin delivers a hateful little speech at the end. And then Obama saying, after the outcry from the GLBT community, that he would never have dropped McClurkin. A sorry, sorry mess and one that has damaged, irreparably, Obama's standing in the GLBT community.

[FredScuttle]

37. The Donnie McClosetCases of this world deserve no place in a reasonable discussion on rights

They are nothing more than clowns....worthy only of our derision and scorn. Reach out to that? Never!

[Elidor]

38. This part bears repeating:

But to offer up Donnie McClurkin as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, and then suggest that gay Americans unhappy at the prospect of him being a ringleader in Obama's "big tent" are culturally insensitive is flat out wrong.

It's not just wrong, it's astonishingly stupid and arrogant. "I'm more culturally sensitive than you." What an incomprehensibly stupid attitude. He has earned my undying contempt.

[FredScuttle]

39. Exactamundo

To compound the egregious insult of giving this "ex-gay" clown a microphone and a starring role at his event, Obama then had the audacity to claim his critics were not giving this bigot a fair opportunity to engage in discussion. Like what kind of dialogue will any sane rational person have with a clown who has said that homosexuality is a "curse" and an "addiction"?

Obama shit the bed on this one and he's still soiling the sheets with every new non-apology

[Radical Activist]

40. A couple false assumptions in this article.

Obama wasn't well known to the nation when he gave the convention speech but he was already known in Illinois because of a very competitive primary election to US Senate. He was also known as a State Senator who co-sponsored a bill adding sexual orientation to the Illinois human rights code, thus extending civil rights protections.

[CyberPieHole]

42. bumpety bump