Posted on 10/24/2007 12:11:48 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
The nations biggest gay rights group is trying to force Sen. Barrack Obama (D-Ill.) to cancel presidential campaign event with a controversial preacher who claims he was homosexual but has been cured.
The Human Rights Campaign has expressed its strong reservations to Obama over his campaign-sponsored tour that features gospel singer Donnie McClurkin.
The influential organization, representing a powerful Democratic constituency, let Obamas campaign know that it would issue a public demand if Obama did not immediately cancel the event, said a person who had been briefed on the exchange.
Obama will not be present on the so-called Embrace the Change Tour, but public denouncement by the Human Rights Campaign could damage him in his quest for the White House.
McClurkin is notorious among gay rights activists for fighting what he calls the curse of homosexuality, for saying sexual orientation is a choice, and for claiming that homosexuality can be cured by prayer.
Obama has drawn intense fire from gay activists and liberal bloggers in recent days for recruiting McClurkin and other gospel singers for a statewide tour of South Carolina beginning this week.
By threatening to weigh in strongly, Human Rights Campaign has elevated what began as a controversy in the blogosphere into a full-fledged dilemma for Obamas campaign.
Senior Obama aides had planned to hash the issue out Tuesday evening and discuss it in a conference call with gay supporters advising the campaign at noon Wednesday, said sources in contact with the campaign.
An online posting Monday by John Aravosis, a prominent left-leaning blogger, characterized the growing discontent.
Funny how Obama is a big supporter of civil rights when blacks are being maligned, but not so much when gays are the victims, Aravosis wrote on AMERICAblog, one of the most widely-read liberal blogs online. I really like Obama. Im from Illinois. But this is despicable.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson wrote on Huffington Post, another popular liberal blog, that Obama should cancel the gay bash tour.
A count done late Tuesday morning found at least 17 political blogs that had sounded off on the flap, ranging from americablog.com, to dailykos.com, to perezhilton.com, a popular celebrity gossip site.
On Monday, Obama issued a statement in an effort to quell the growing uproar but stopped short of canceling the campaign-sponsored tour.
I strongly believe that African Americans and the [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT)] community must stand together in the fight for equal rights. And so I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkins views and will continue to fight for these rights as president of the United States to ensure that America is a country that spreads tolerance instead of division, Obama stated.
The senator also said that he has spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists so that together they can confront HIV/AIDS and other issues facing African-Americans.
The statement failed to appease Aravosis, the founder of AMERICAblog, and other activists.
Thats nice, senator, he wrote. You strongly disagree with the bigot who thinks I need to be cured, and who has declared war on me and my people
One active member of the LGBT community who is supporting Obama said that his e-mail inbox has filled with complaints about the controversy.
I think Barack Obama is between a rock and hard place and I imagine it will get worse not better over the next 48 hours, said the supporter who declined to speak on the record because he had not made up his mind whether to criticize Obama publicly. I never heard about [McClurkin] until 36 hours ago. Someone sent me an e-mail of a blog on the Huffington Post. God bless the Internet. Things spread like wildfire.
The Obama backer said that better staff work could have avoided the political brouhaha.
It shouldnt have happened, he said. Someone should have known there was a red flag.
Jimmy Williams, an openly gay Democratic lobbyist who supports Obama, said the media were unfair to criticize Obama without scrutinizing other candidates.
If the press is going to hold Barack Obama to a certain level of criticism for his anti-gay associates then I hope you would do the same to Sen. [Hillary Rodham] Clinton [D-N.Y.] and the Republican candidates, he said. For example, Clinton touts a guy named Harold Mayberry who is an African American minister who has publicly said that homosexuality is comparable to thievery. There are plenty examples.
Why is the spotlight on Barack? he said. Lets play a fair political game.
Ping! ;)
With reservations, I don’t find it delicious. I understand the urge to do so.
We can dump on Obama all we like, but hes the only thing standing between Queen Hitlery and the Democrat nomination. I guess it may seem to some that castrating him at this time is a great idea, but Id rather Fred Thompson do so next fall.
Folks, as bad as Obama may be, hes a first year tee-ball player compared to the Dixie Mafias answer to the Babe Ruth of Marxist politics. Lets cut him some slack eh?
ping
Obama and Hiltery are running together. They tour on the same plane. This is from trusted sources. A so called women and a black muslim raised as such, are not ever going to be cut any slack. Be wary, very very wary.
I don't get it. What's the difference? All the demos walk in lockstep with MoveOn.org. Get over the paranoia, a Republican, any Republican will win the election.
Thanks for the comments folks. I will remind each of you what Bill Clinton was in 1992, and he still won.
I’d still rather see Fred run against Obama next year.
I appreciate your opposing views.
Kiss the homosexual butt Obama, we know you can do it.
And whose fault was that? The Republican Party. If the GOP doesn't put up a conservative candidate who actually represents the base,they have only themselves to blame. Voting for the lesser of two evils is not a game I play.
Methinks this preacher will soon find himself telling the world that he didn’t leave the Left, but the Left left him.
Let me see, you have the Geraldine Ferraro type running against the Muslim type and we should give slack to the Muslim type. I think not.
In 1992 Bill Clinton won with 43% of the vote. That’t being the case, I’m not sure there’s a real message in there. There were two contributiong factors at play also.
Ross Perot got 19% of the vote that year. George Herbert Walker Bush executed one of the most poorly run phantom campaigns I’ve ever seen.
It was my opinion at the time, that Bush thought his war execution would guarantee him the race. It didn’t.
I guess it would be remiss not to mention that Bill Clinton got a big wet sloppy kiss from the media that year also. Bush didn’t.
Remember that ‘worst economic conditions since the great depression’ claim of the Clintons that the media pushed for months on end?
I would say that this isn't a Ferraro type. It's more like a Stalin type.
Are you making the case we have more to fear from Obama than Hillary?
nothing more than the media installing hillary
Obama has an acquaintance who doesn’t think male on male sodomy is a beautiful thing? That’s gonna hurt him among Democrat primary voters, most of whom are a little gender confused to begin with.
Hillary can't win, IMHO.
But she can steal it.
And I think she intends to.
These leftists are incredible; they must live in an alternate universe. Because McClurkin was changed himself, and believes others can change, he's 'declared war' on homosexuals? Simply incredible.
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