Having given it a fair amount of thought, what Obama SHOULD do at this point

[Lerkfish]

Obama painted himself into a corner, I'm afraid, this Warren thing was (I suppose) meant to placate right wing evangelicals, but legitimately offends the GLBT community (and many of us not in that community).

so... now what? If he un-selects warren, he'll have pissed off the right wingers he was apparently trying to include, and IN ADDITION will stoke their already existent hatred of gays into an even more irrational vitriolic hatred of gays.

That's no good either.

Pragmatically, the only solution I see at this point is to do one of the following:

1. select an openly gay clergy to co-hold the invocation -- this is more feasible than many might think, just have them both give a short prayer. The downside of this is if they are both christians, then no other religion is included)

2. Get a whole panel of clergy from all religions, and atheism, with a healthy amount of GLBT clergy among the mix, to do a NON DENOMINATIONAL "blessing" or whatever term would be best.
IMHO, this would be the BEST solution, and would signal DIVERSITY and INCLUSION, and would put the right wingers on the spot because they couldn't very well object and it would sufficiently dilute anything Warren would have gained from being the sole blesser.


This does not in any way attempt to tell any GLBT'er how to feel, in fact I'm upset about his original choice, too.
This is just a way to suggest an alternative that might affect the most healing in this situation.


if you agree, please recommend.

if you disagree, that's fine, too.

[IndianaJones]

1. I think he should stand his ground and not admit a mistake. Thats not manly. nt.

[Lerkfish]

3. hm. I think openly admitting a mistake is quite mature, manly or not.

and I consider this a mistake.

[Neecy]

5. Yeah, like George W Bush

That's exactly what we need, another Bush who will never admit that he's made a mistake.

Manly?

[Lost-in-FL]

6. Oh dear...

:hide:

[scheming daemons]

2. I think the best thing he can do is to:

A. hope that Warren backs out on his own

B. work behind the scenes to get Warren to back out "on his own"


He can't PUBLICLY ask Warren to back out or force him out now without sustaining substantially more political damage.


He's going to have to bite the bullet now and learn from his mistake.

[nichomachus]

8. Warren will not back out -- he's got Obama by the balls and he's not going to let go

This is a power trip for Warren and he's already gotten Obama to roll over and expose his belly. Warren won't let up now.

If Warren backs down, he loses. And he isn't going to lose. This is his big chance to become the officially designated "pope of America."

[mondo joe]

4. Very thoughtful, Lerk. Thank you. NT

[ananda]

7. An apology to ALL Americans for associating himself and..

.. his admin with hate and oppression would do just fine.

Then choosing ministers of other faiths to co-hold the
invocation would be a fair solution, including at least
one who is openly homosexual.

[Thrill]

9. I think this whole Warren thing is a big overreaction. BUT, I don't see

why Obama doesn't just replace Warren with someone else, so it can stop being a story. With so many preachers out there, why insist on this guy? Just seems like something that can be easily solved.

Problem is the outrage has been so loud and annoying that, he isn't going to replace him now because he isn't going to want to be seen as falling to pressure

[nsd]

12. For most of the public, it's already not a story.

Disinviting Warren at this point would push this controversy back into the headlines. In fact, this would be an even bigger story ("Obama caves in to leftwing blogosphere") than the original.

As a matter of politics, Obama's best strategy is simply to stay his course. Have Warren give his prayer, say this shows inclusiveness, and ignore protests from the left.

[ginnyinWI]

33. it's not a story--except on the blogs.

Everyone else has moved on. I don't think Obama sees this as a mistake so he's certainly not going to correct it. IMO, he's playing chess and looking a dozen moves ahead, while most everyone else is playing checkers. Watch and see if this doesn't turn out to be a smart move, or at least not a dumb one.

[Maven]

10. He won't. We don't get included, just the bigots

[LittleBlue]

11. The GLBT community is 1% of the population

Politically speaking, he has little to worry about. They are loyal to Democrats and live in safe states, mostly.

If they were 10% and lived in swing states, Warren would never get within 10km of the inauguration.

[jonnyblitz]

14. it's not only gay folk that are pissed at this. nt

[LittleBlue]

15. Relatively speaking, very few voters outside the GLBT

community care about this issue at the moment.

This issue will probably not affect more than a few thousand votes in safe states in the next election.

[xiamiam]

26. you are wrong about this..many of us are fed up with evangelical hogwash..nt

[Solon]

29. Most polls put GLBT people at closer to 10%, not 1%, unless you are talking...

right wing polls, and believe me, they love citing 1% or 2% as if it were accurate.

[jonnyblitz]

13. it doesn't matter what he does , the horse is out of the barn. nt

[Malikshah]

16. Pragmatically, accepting his mistake shows true leadership. As it stands now, he

is coming across as a political panderer who masks his apparently remarkable lack of compassion for some in the US with a veneer of inclusiveness.

In choosing Warren he has chosen the side of exclusion. Shame on him.

[Gregorian]

17. I think he should cancel the invocation. That simple.

There is no place for praying in our government ceremonies. Not unless god is also part of the policy making. That's the implication it sends to me.

[Lerkfish]

18. That's a good suggestion, too.

[Gregorian]

34. I now think it's not such a good idea, after reading the posts here.

He picked Warren because his Purpose Driven Life was a worldwide monster of a success. I don't think many knew this side of the man.

And it's not like Warren will just vaporize. He's another living being. So burning him in public would serve to undercut Obama's message.

[QC]

19. As we say in Alabama,

"You can't unshit the bed."

Obama is stuck with his buddy Rick now.

[polichick]

23. No offense, but that picture makes me ill. :)

[Mz Pip]

20. I suspect Obama

might already regret having Warren do the invocation. I doubt Obama knew the true extent of Warren's record of anti-gay and anti-woman public statements. I doubt Warren spewed his venom in front of Obama when Obama came to Saddleback. I fault his staff for not doing better research. They really should have done a google search before asking Warren to open the inauguration.

Billy Graham was anti-choice and anti-gay marriage and he gave 3 invocations for whatever that is worth. These views are hardly uncommon in the religious world. Personally, I'd rather there not be any religious invocation but with 95% of the country being believers I doubt that will change any time soon.

[polichick]

21. imo he should cut the political crap and do what's right - make a statement...

...of apology to his supporters ~ gays, women and others ~ who have been hurt and/or disappointed, and name his new much wiser choice.

He can worry about expanding his base during the next four years.

[emlev]

22. Yes, and make it clear that all clergy will have a "receiving line"

in which they will be expected to hug each other.
Then see if Warren shows.

[Ratty]

24. Unselecting Warren would send a HUUUUGE message

It would stir up a firestorm, rile up right wingers, and completely piss off the bigoted evangelical fundies. It would take major guts to do it. In my book, all would be forgiven with respect to Obama.

[glitch]

25. Option 2. would be walking the talk of inclusion, at least. nt

[trashcanistanista]

27. I think the best and easiest out for him is to rescind the

offer to Warren with the excuse that the gay marriage issue is going to the California Supreme Court and as PE he does not want to interfere or be seen to have undo influence on the court's decision. He can schedule a forum with Warren after the court makes it's decision. That way, if prop 8 gets invalidated, it had nothing to do with him. He can please everyone. But asically, he shouold do the right thing and admit he made a mistake. He should apologize to Warren and pick someone else.

[ecstatic]

28. When he gets back, he should condemn what's going on in Cali right now

with trying to nullify the gay marriages. Then, he should try to get Warren to apologize or further clarify what he meant about pedophilia/incest being the same as gay marriage.

[Skittles]

30. he's not going to do a damn thing about it

he thinks he did nothing wrong

[TheKentuckian]

31. Irregardless at this point I think he he just has to suck it up or

get pretty creative but an uninvite to Warren won't restore faith and will burn the little capital/good will bought that is needed to accomplish things.

I figure substance is the only coin Obama can buy a lot of the faith lost back with anyway so a work place protection bill and/or a repeal of don't ask don't tell soon should be more meaningful anyway.

Those that are done regardless of results are done anyway and are plausibly in the 22% of gays that voted McCain anyway.

[AntiFascist]

32. For Christ's sake, it's only 2 1/2 minutes...

actually I think HRC or someone is putting together a rather impressive list of goals for Obama in appeasing the GLBT community once he takes office. Others in the M$M (on Anderson Cooper - Gergen?) are claiming that Obama has pissed off the GLBTers so much that he must now work hard to gain back their trust. It sounds like we are making progress, "whether they like it or not."

[yodermon]

35. What Obama *should* do is appoint federal judges who will subsequently rule that gay marriages

merit equal protection under the law, full stop.