WTF Obama?

Obama really has got to cut this shit out:

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- Democratic Sen. Barack Obama kicked off a series of local outreach gospel concerts Friday in Charleston, South Carolina, that unexpectedly came back to bite his campaign...

...When the campaign announced the lineups for the three-city "Embrace the Change!" gospel tour last week, one name stood out to gay bloggers: Donnie McClurkin.

The Grammy-award winning singer is on record as saying homosexuality is a choice, and that he was "once involved with those desires and those thoughts" but was able to get past them through prayer.

Even I thought maybe that wasn't such a big deal until I read this today:

He {McClurkin} approached the subject gingerly at first. Then, just when the concert had seemed to reach its pitch and about to end, Mr. McClurkin returned to it with a full-blown plea: “Don’t call me a bigot or anti-gay when I have suffered the same feelings,” he cried.

“God delivered me from homosexuality,” he added. He then told the audience to believe the Bible over the blogs: “God is the only way.” The crowd sang and clapped along in full support.

Over to you Digby:

I wrote before that I thought Obama was doing a very clumsy Sistah Soljah in South Carolina with this homophobe gospel singer Donnie McClurkin. Turns out McClurkin is actually emceeing the show and gives a rousing speech at the end about the evils of homosexuality, (and the campaign continues to defend it) so I think there's little doubt that this is intentional. {emphasis mine}

I'm sure Obama is listening to his advisors tell him that he has to win South Carolina or it's over. And apparently South Carolina is a stew of bigotry and resentment, the place where the dirty tricksters pull out all the stops to win. This kind of thing is perfectly in keeping with that sort of strategy. But as I said before, it's a mistake, particularly for the man whose rationale for running is a desire to heal the nation's political and philosophical wounds.

Kos chimed in today as well. He asks some questions that I think all of us Obama fans should think about:

This is truly an epic flameout by the Obama campaign, engaged in actions that are completely indefensible. Those of you who continue to try and rationalize it -- would you be making the same exculpatory arguments if it was George W. Bush doing the things Obama is doing right now? Or one of the rival campaigns? Somehow, I doubt the vast majority of you would. {emphasis mine}

I don't know about the rest of you, but if Hillary had a homophobic gospel singer campaigning for her I would be raising holy hell.

Is is OK for a candidate to have people campaigning for them spew anti-homosexual rhetoric just because it is a gospel revival? How about anti-Mexican rhetoric in Encinitis? Anti-African American at a Nascar race in Las Vegas? Would we tolerate that? I don't think so.

It also shows bad instinct on Obamas part. We all suffered through Gore and Kerry trying to prove to the world they were not liberal hippies. How did that work out? I REALLY don't want to go through that again.