On her eponymous MSNBC show last night, Rachel Maddow called President-elect Barack Obama's choice of fundamentalist pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at Obama's inauguration a "lose-lose" proposition. Warren used his California church to campaign vigorously in favor of Proposition 8, which revoked the legality of same-sex marriage in that state; he has equated same-sex relationships with pedophilia and incest.
Obama, for his part, has a strong record promoting equal rights for gays, but himself is opposed to same-sex "marriage."
Warren and Obama do seem to agree on certain other issues, such as the need for caring human stewards to protect the environment and to look after the less fortunate and homeless among us.
Maddow thinks Obama's choice is a "lose-lose" proposition because it has offended a great number of Obama's erstwhile supporters yet will not gain Obama any measurable support among fundamentalist Christians.
Maddow missed the point. Obama himself acknowledged that he and Warren disagree vehemently on many issues, but that doesn't mean they must be disagreeable about doing so. In this regard, Obama is implementing two of his most important stands during the campaign: (1) it's never wrong to have dialog with those with whom you disagree; and (2) it's important to "reach across the aisle" and to take actions proving that he's the president of all Americans, not just those who voted for him.
Furthermore, Obama is accomplishing two other goals that Maddow [and all the other talking heads I've heard complaining about this decision so far--Ed.] has forgotten: (1) "Hold your friends close, but hold your enemies closer." (2) He's not so beholden to anyone or any group for his election that he's going to adopt 100% of any group's agenda just because that group voted for him.
This man is incredibly secure in his own skin. I already know I'm not going to agree with him about everything--indeed, we've already disagreed on at least one issue of great importance to me [he voted for giving immunity to the telecoms who illegally eavesdropped on US citizens because enacting other provisions in the legislation mattered more to him than opposing telecom immunity did--Ed.]. Still, I have great respect for his sense of his internal integrity and his confidence in his own judgments. He thinks through his decisions before he makes them. He knows it's impossible to please all of the people all of the time. He's the embodiment of Harry Truman's Oval Office desk sign: The Buck Stops Here.
So while I find Rick Warren's stand on same-sex marriage odious, I am not as upset about Obama's choosing him to give the inaugural invocation as are Maddow and the other talking heads with public pulpits [yes, a lot of conservatives are not happy about it, either--they disagree with Warren's stand on environmental issues or they think Obama is trying to co-opt their cause--Ed.]. Unlike them, I get the point.
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