What's The Point?

Over at Brilliant At Breakfast, Jill sums up Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration:

I understand why the consultants at Camp Obama felt that this would be a way of reaching out to those who didn't vote for their guy -- a brief moment in time to say "We hear you" before working to enact policies that they might otherwise oppose. There's only one problem. It won't work. And what I don't understand is how you get from reaching out to a hatemonger like Rick Warren, who thinks gays are like child molesters and people like me are holding an express bus ticket to hell and that women cease to be human once they become vessels for embryos, constitutes "inclusiveness." I don't understand why "inclusiveness" means you get to throw one group who has actually supported you under the bus, embracing those who want to exclude that group from one of the fundamental institutions of American life, in the name of "changing the discourse."

Sorry, President-Elect Obama, you blew it big time with this one

It's simply amazing that almost every extended family knows that one of the things you try not to talk about at family gatherings is religion, and yet every politician seems to want to put it front and center these days. Did the state of Washington's little experience with religious diversity (and the resulting intolerance) teach us nothing?

Apparently not. In the interest of reaching out to people who wouldn't give him the time of day, the President-elect has piddled on some of his best supporters.

Couldn't we just listen to the new President's speech and then move on to the inevitable disappointment without all this nonsense?

UPDATE: Kathryn Kolbert, president of People For The American Way, had this to say about Rick Warren in an e-mail today:

We strongly agree with President-elect Obama that everyone should have a seat at the table, but only those who treat others with respect should get a seat of honor. We have high hopes for the change Obama has pledged to bring to Washington, but we also need to let him know when we think he's making a bad move. Please join me in signing an open letter to President-elect Obama to let him know that we are disappointed that he's giving Rev. Warren such a public position of honor in the inauguration, and we hope that we can use this as a teachable moment. It's not that Rick Warren simply disagrees with us -- and President-elect Obama for that matter -- on "issues." His views on basic equality, human rights and core constitutional values cannot be legitimized as reasonable.

I've added the link to the online open letter page.