No More Mr. Nice Guy!

Saddleback Mountain

What a love fest between John McCain and Rick "The Republican-Driven Life" Warren the other day.

Every one of Warren's questions was a softball explicitly designed to play to McCain's talking points and allow him to preach to the choir, and pander to beat the band. "Does evil exist, and if it does, do we ignore it, do we negotiate with it, do we contain it or do we defeat it.?" Come on! This is obviously a partisan dig at Obama for saying he would talk to leaders like Ahmedinejad - who is of course evil because he doesn't share our Judeo-Christian values. Funnily enough, even with the advantage of such loaded questions, McCain had to hear them in advance so that he could prepare glib answers, while Barack Obama had to think on his feet.

It was a huge mistake for Obama to take part in this charade. First, he legitimized the relentless onward march of religious-right theocracy as a megachurch Elmer Gantry appoints himself a presidential debate moderator and frames questions that amount to an explicit religious test for public office. Secondly, Obama is wasting his time trying to woo white fundamentalists. He should know that if Jesus Christ ran as the Democratic candidate, the religious right would be Swift-boating him as "Unfit for Salvation", a cut-and-run defeatist who said "Blessed are the peacemakers", a socialist who preached class warfare by denouncing the rich and greedy, and a man who tried to destroy family values by forgiving prostitutes.

The whole thing was a farce, and I'm disappointed with Obama for his naivete for walking into the belly of the beast.