He’s in favor of repealing DOMA. Once DOMA has been repealed, a same-sex couple who want to get married may have to travel to Massachusetts, but will be able to return to their home state and have their marriage recognised there, as the Constitution requires – all states must give “full faith and credit” to marriages performed in other states. So while Obama may personally oppose gay marriage, he isn’t trying to impose his religious beliefs on others. Unlike Bush, who has no particular religious beliefs that anyone’s been able to discover, but who is quite willing to ban gay marriage for Americans because it makes conservative Christians happy bunnies.

Either Obama or Clinton will make a good President. Assuming McCain can escape being prosecuted for electoral fraud, he doesn’t stand a chance against either of them.

Surely, you already know Obama’s position vis-a-vis gay marriage. He’s not in favor of that, either. I guess you would call him a bigot against homosexuals as well. Quite the contortion you must go through to continue your adoration of the guy.

You advocate a world where everybody disassociates themselves from anybody with objectionable viewpoints, where division and reducing people to soundbites is the norm.

It’s so pitiful that you can’t make arguments without setting up strawmen, Jeromy. Nowhere, in any writing of mine anywhere, will you find a statement that remotely advocates this point of view. I think there’s a big difference between chance encounters, close friendships, and blood relations, which is seemingly more than Obama does.

But I’m glad you realize trying to convince us that Obama is actually hateful and angry is a losing gambit

Another strawman. Where have I said any of this? Because I question that he stayed in a church that preached hatred and doesn’t embrace that? Because I think one chooses one’s church, especially when one hasn’t been tethered to a particular religion since childhood, because it coincides with one’s values and the values one chooses to teach one’s children? Obama is a one-term senator, Jeromy. He hasn’t done much of anything other than run for president. It’s pretty difficult to look at his non-record and say that the absense of radicalism means he didn’t and doesn’t agree with things Wright has said. Where are the church members who can come forward to tell us about the tolerant Obama shaking his head in disbelief at the crazy pastor?

You don’t like me pointing out that the people one chooses to hang out with are a good indication of who one is, but that’s really the point here. If a white candidate went to a racist church for 20 years, he would be branded a racist regardless of his personal actions. But then, I guess there is a different standard.

I like Dana more than I like Jesurgislac

Can I use this on my Testimonials page? Of course, I might need another good zinger from J to go along with it.

sweep around your own front door before you try to sweep around anybody else’s, righties

He wants you and your husband and your children to be able to get health insurance, Sharon. That would be good for you.

Online, we tend to know only the limited edge of other people: even in that limited edge, it is still possible to look for the good in them.

“…do good for me…” Where did that come from? I said Obama could see the good in you, which would be an impressive feat considering your bigotry towards homosexuals. He’d probably take your pseudo-concerns about “the children” halfway seriously.

You advocate a world where everybody disassociates themselves from anybody with objectionable viewpoints, where division and reducing people to soundbites is the norm. I just think that’s a highly unrealistic world and a kind of politics that has infected the news cycle so thoroughly, but it’s not one most Americans live in. I think a lot of people are like Obama and try to be kind to others, and generally return kindnesses offered. You may find out the neighbor who helped you out was a 9/11 truther. You may find that the person who agrees with you about the gays took your wallet when you dropped it.

Shit, I like Dana more than I like Jesurgislac, and Dana is near pathological in his desire to throw people in jail. He’s a messed-up monkey, but I still feel his humanity despite some of the missing parts.

Jeremiah Wright largely served as Obama’s pastor and likely spent 99% of his lectures talking about Jesus and positive efforts to uplift black people. Andrew Sullivan has made some efforts to draw a larger portrait of the man’s character. And your efforts to diminish Obama’s personal connection are immediately contradicted by your need to reinforce how personal Obama was with Wright. You can’t have it both ways.

But I’m glad you realize trying to convince us that Obama is actually hateful and angry is a losing gambit…and it was always a gambit. You never believed it yourself and you still don’t.

And Obama doesn’t want to “do good for me,” Jeromy. He’s had opportunities to work with Republicans and hasn’t done it. That’s something you can’t say about the Republican candidate.

If there weren’t a giant undercurrent of racism for Obama’s opponents to work with, this wouldn’t be a major issue. Republican opponents get elected without even denouncing crazy ass white preachers. McCain denounced the views of Falwell and Robertson and has been facing the backlash from the GOP for 8 years. He butters them up again and voila, he’s the nominee!

Obama denounces the negative views of Wright and you’re still having a fit? What a joke. He’s supposed to disassociate himself from Wright and see him as no more than a bigot? I don’t think that’s how people should run their lives. We’re supposed to be able to look past people’s views that we find reprehensible and form relationships with them. How else am I supposed to ever be friends with a Republican? I’ve befriended some people who would barely rank as the worst sort of rightwing trolls on the net, but in real life, as full-blown people who are more than just soundbites, they can surprise you with their humanity. Politics just ain’t their thing, but they’ll be great joke tellers or something. Obama is an inclusive guy who’ll look for the good in everybody…even you, Sharon.

You should really have more appreciation for such attitudes. Trust me.

I think your assessment about how much of a problem this is for Obama is correct- after this speech. It did get certain portions of the Democratic Party scrambling scared out of their wits…mainly Hillary/DLC type Democrats who are used to basing their positions on fear of what mean Republicans will say about them. It had potential to boost Hillary’s superdelegate numbers. But now she doesn’t have shit to say, because Obama knocked it out of the park with a kind of honesty she can’t compare with. She knows she needs to wait a news cycle or two.

General election wise, if Obama hadn’t nipped this thing in the bud, the GOP could have gained a lot of mileage with queasy swing voters. And they might still. Certainly rightwingers are trying to keep this ball rolling with mock outrage. That won’t work right now, but come October it’ll be Barack X the Muslim terrorist who wants to bone your white daughters 24/7.

That strategy will backfire and fail, ultimately. Why? Because Barack is showing that he isn’t easy to swiftboat. That’s what the new generation of Democrats need to be about: standing up for themselves and being assertively proud to be who they are, politically and personally.

Words of unity and hope aren’t Barack Obama’s premise. Unity and hope themselves are.

I’m trying — and failing — to see the difference here. He communicates to us via words, and his goal is to become President of the United States, not to promote unity and hope.

I don’t know how serious Mr Obama’s preacher problem is; my guess is, not very. The people who are concerned about this were never going to vote for him anyway, and the people who were planning to vote for him won’t be swayed by this.