Sorry, there's one position on the Rick Warren controversy I find hard to respect

Being surprised about it. Maybe you think it's a huge deal, a small deal, nothing at all, or even something really great. But why should it come as a surprise?


I'm shocked, shocked that Rick Warren will be Obama's invocation speaker!

No one could have anticipated that a candidate who signaled — since before his campaign officially started — that he was going to cater to the Rick Warrens of the world would give a God-exploiting bigot like, say, Rick Warren a bully pulpit from day one of his presidency!

How could you not be "profoundly disappointed" when something like that comes out of left field? It's "a bit of a surprise." "This one puzzles"! "What?!" "WTF?" "Really?!?!"

It's not like Obama has promised to let faith-based groups "help set our national agenda," right?

It's "inconceivable" that Obama would make such a homophobic choice.

He surely wouldn't treat Warren's big-ass church as an essential campaign stop, would he? Well, if he did, he'd never say something like this there:



I suppose I'd start to worry if he said things like


or


or


or


or


or


or


or



So, don't make anything out of this uncharacteristic decision.

Obama's got his feet on the ground, and unlike the outgoing president, he's simply not going to mix religion and politics!


UPDATES:

John Aravosis is caught flat-footed by this shocking and thoroughly unpredictable development!



Late-blooming Obama believer Taylor Marsh observes:



Matt Stoller suggests uncloseting these impulses:

That's the excuse I hear the most. That Obama was lying he said all of the above, and he had a secret plan to automagically transform into SuperLiberalMan once the election was over.

People got too used to Bush, thinking every president is a lying extremist now.

this has taken the luster off the inauguration for me and many others.

This was a shameful, hurtful act. But indeed, from early on in the Obama campaign, he has made it clear that he intends to bring the theocrats into the tent. It is my major problem with Obama, so far, and always has been. I have other problems with him as well, he is way too center-right for my tastes on foreign and domestic policy. However I still support the not even seated yet administration, and retain hope that real change is something I can believe in because it will actually happen. I can support an administration that has done something I find disgusting. After all, what are my other options?

oppose actions when they are wrong, period, irrespective of which party is behind them.

the democratic party must be opposed if it intends to bring republicans into it.

otho, it's really just one party anyway, one hand washing the other, in mud.

disappointed, yes ... surprised, no

Everything he is doing now is exactly what he said he would do. What should give people comfort is he pledged to repeal DOMA. I'd say he has a bunch of fires to put out first though, including the economy, health care, Iraq, etc. I wonder how much political capital he will have after that. If the economy keeps on tanking, people will start to blame him.

I knew that as my choices kept narrowing until it became a choice as usual between a Dino and a Republican that I still had a choice to make.

I voted for a stop-gap to the very rapid deterioration of our democracy, our civil liberties and the financial and physical well being of most of her citizens.

Make no mistake, it will still continue, only perhaps more slowly, like with Clinton.

That is all I ever expected and I am truly and deeply sorry for those that naively expected more.
It is not easy to learn that one's hero is no such thing. It can shatter hope and Idealism within a person upon such a realization. I have nothing but sympathy for those that are shocked or in denial.

It is perhaps time to face a fact that was never hidden, all we did was buy a little more time to try to stop the rot that will destroy this nation. There is not much time. We must continue to fight even though the majority of both parties are complicit. We have no choice really, save to give up.

"they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

I won't be surprised with the continued Occupation of Iraq, or the escalation of the War in Afghanistan. I know educated people who believe that Obama promised to end the War in Iraq.
He didn't.

I won't be surprised with the increase in Military Spending or the expansion of our Military "to protect American Interests".

I also won't be surprised with even more Outsourcing, Insourcing, and Privatization, or the further concentration of Wealth and Power into fewer hands. The people who helped create that system are back in power on Obama's Economic Team.

To be honest, I had though that Obama was better at stagecraft. It is a pretty transparent insult to The Left to give Warren the Opening Spotlight on a Global Stage for his first official act as President, so I guess you could say I'm surprised on that level.
But then Obama has been pretty blatant with his choices for Chief of Staff, Economic Team, and Foreign Policy Team.

By now, it should be pretty clear exactly what Obama means by "Post-Partisanship".
Here is a picture:

He's further distanced himself from those awful, bickering, single-issue liberals, and closer to heartland piousness!

Perhaps he didn't bargain for this much agita about it, but the message is, and has been, unmistakable:

http://www.correntewire.com/bus_roll_over_mes_back_in_town