Obama's link to gospel singer sparks controversy

Barack Obama is drawing fire for including Donnie McClurkin, a Grammy-winning gospel singer who has crusaded against homosexuality, on a concert and political tour that the Democratic presidential candidate will launch in South Carolina later this week.

Commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson, author of "A Colored Man's Journey Through 20th Century Segregated America" and several other books that examine race relations, posted a blog over the weekend calling on Obama to "cancel and repudiate" the tour -- "and do it now" -- because of McClurkin. Hutchinson terms the singer a "notorious gay basher" and charged that Obama "ripped a page from the Bush campaign playbook" by traveling with him.

The tour is slated to start Friday in Charleston and will feature other well-known gospel singers and groups, such as the Mighty Clouds of Joy. In the release that announced the event, campaign aide Joshua DuBois is quoted as saying: "This is another example of how Barack Obama is defying conventional wisdom about how politics is done and giving new meaning to meeting people at the grassroots level. This concert tour is going to bring new people into the political process and engage people of faith in an unprecedented way."

Hutchinson's take was a bit different (to say the least). Noting that ...

Obama has "sold himself as a healer and consensus builder," the commentator added: "But healing and consensus building does not mean sucking up to someone that publicly boasts that he's in 'a war' against gays, and that the aim of his war is to 'cure' them. That's what McClurkin has said."

(UPDATE -- This evening, the Obama campaign sent us this comment from the candidate: “I have clearly stated my belief that gays and lesbians are our brothers and sisters and should be provided the respect, dignity, and rights of all other citizens.  I have consistently spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists in some parts our community so that we can confront issues like HIV/AIDS and broaden the reach of equal rights in this country.

"I strongly believe that African Americans and the LGBT community must stand together in the fight for equal rights.  And so I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin’s views and will continue to fight for these rights as President of the United States to ensure that America is a country that spreads tolerance instead of division.”)

McClurkin, who as a boy was sexually abused by two male relatives, has experience in the political spotlight -- in 2004, he performed at the Republican National Convention on the same evening that President Bush accepted his party's re-nomination.

"Embrace the Change" is the name the Obama campaign has given the upcoming tour, which will end Sunday. "Stave Off Hillary" might be a more accurate title.

Black voters traditionally constitute about 50% of the turnout in the South Carolina Democratic primary, one of the early contests in the nominating process, and many analysts initially assumed that pride in Obama's quest to become the first African American president would give him an inherent advantage in the state.

A Times/Bloomberg poll conducted in South Carolina last month found Hillary Clinton easily leading, in part because she was running ahead of Obama among black voters.

(UPDATE -- The Obama campaign calls attention to a poll by Winthrop University, in Rock Hill, S.C., and South Carolina Educational Television that showed Obama ahead of Clinton among blacks in the state, 35.4% to 30.7%. Support for other candidates was negligible and 28.7% of those surveyed were undecided. The poll, conducted between mid-August and early September, interviewed 657 African-Americans and had an error margin of plus-or-minus 3.82%.)

-- Don Frederick

Comments

[RuthieM]

This is outrageous! How in the world is going on a gospel tour with someone who personally believes what he believes is "SUCKING UP TO HIM"? Obama needs to continue this tour and folks need to stop crying and complaining every time Obama, as running for the president of the United States of ALL people, decide to reach out to everyone. Obama is not a gaybasher and if this other person is that is his business, not Obama's. He definitely should not cancel his tour because there are other gospel entertainers on this tour too. Why don't you, Donnie, go tell him to stop singing and touring then. My goodness gracious, if Obama stopped standing next to everybody who everybody else wants him to, he would be standing in the middle of the road alone.

[vwcat]

Obama has a strong civil rights record. he also has compassion and would understand why this singer feels the way his does. The scars of what happened to him, like most people who have been abused, is what is behind this man's feelings. And Obama accepts him for this as a person of caring.
Obama, of course, does not condone prejudice but, he also would feel that this man has had to deal with the afterwards of the abuse.
I support Barack Obama and I know he does not feel anything but, acceptance for gays. but, at the same time, the same things that lead Obama to accept people for who they are are the same things that make him understand the trauma this man suffered as a child.

[mysistagirl]

The reaction to this concert and the billing of Donnie McClurkin by the gay and lesbian lobby is completely hypocritical and plain outrageous.

This is a gospel concert, and signing up one of the greatest gospel talents in the known universe is a good thing for the cause. And the cause, in case ya'll didn't know it, is to reach out to the faith community in gospel song. It is not to address gay and lesbian issues. Mr. McClurkin's views on gay and lesbians have nothing what so ever to do with his musical talent and stature.

If a company was hiring electrical engineers, and one of the most qualified applicants was gay, should they be disqualified because of that? Of course not. They should be judged on the merits as it applies to the job for which they are being sought, and this is exactly what the gay and lesbian community is constantly harping about. Yet, in this instance you are asking the Obama camp to engage in the same kind of discriminatory practice that you yourselves abhor. Shame on you.

Mr. McClurkin is an extremely accomplished gospel singer, extremely popular in the faith community and very, very much so in the African American community of faith. For the Obama camp to diss this artist at the behest of the hypocritical gay and lesbian community, is to do serious damage to his constituency in the AA community and the community of faith. The gay and lesbian community DOES NOT OWN the democratic party and your interests are not the only ones that matter, especially when they require a candidate to diss other important constituents.

Grow up, and stop acting like spoiled brats!!

[Mr. Unite Us]

Just saw Obama in Los Angeles. The first speaker was
a represenative of an LGBT organization that supports Obama.
Hutchinson is not gay, However his a strong Clinton supporter.
That's the real issue.

Note there was no outcry when McClurkin won the Grammy's or
when he sang at the Republican National Convention. The Gospel
Singer's music is very inspiring. McClurkin was raped by a man when he
was just 8 years old. He was molested when he 13. He no longer lives the homosexual life style and hasn't for over 10 years. Some homosexuals may feel betrayed, like he left a gang or something. But most of the outcry is from
Hillary Clinton supporters.

[Carolyn Grace]

This is really old news. Didn't this happen back in October? Why are you bringing this up again? Trying to make Senator Obama look bad? The LA Times is so pro-Hillary it's pathetic.

(Yes, it did. It's buried in our archives. Why are you reading it now?)

[Janet Reno]

Obama’s efforts to connect to the Republican Party, specifically Bush, and Dick Chaney, of the Halliburton Company, dates back to the Presidents Grandfather, Prescott Bush, and indeed Chaney was once an executive officer of Halliburton.

The American military pounds Iraq with Artillary, bombs, and the like, destroying large sections of cities, and infra-structures, then Halliburton comes in to rebuild. Halliburton and Halliburton associated companies have raked in ten’s of billions.

Obama is just like the BIG HALIBURTAN. Haliburton has contracted to build detention centers in the U.S. similiar to the one in Quantanammo Bay, Cuba. Halliburton does nothing to earn the Two Dollars for each meal an American Serviceman in Iraq eats.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

Halliburton was scheduled to take control of the Dubai Ports in The United Arab Emiirate. The deal was canceled when Bush was unable to affect the transfer of the American Ports.

Now we see what some might suspect as similiar financial escapading from the Democrats.

Two years ago, Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity gave a $50 million contract to a start-up security company - Companion- owned by now-indicted businessman (TONY REZKO) Tony Rezko and a onetime Chicago cop, Daniel T. Frawley, to train Iraqi power-plant guards in the United States. An Iraqi leadership change left the deal in limbo. Now the company, Companion Security, is working to revive its contract.
Involved along with Antoin “Tony” Rezco, long time friend and neighbor of Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, and former cop Daniel T. Frawley, is Aiham Alsammarae. Alsammarae was accused of financial corruption by Iraqi authorities and jailed in Iraq last year before escaping and returning here.

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON --
Recently, Obama's campaign staff have been vetted by the IRS to disclose his connection to the criminal money generating underworld. Besides, his connections to the REZCO MAFIA types, his up-coming tax fraud charges — Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM "PATWANG-FWEEE" and disclose Obama's MUSLIM Farrakhan mob connection to Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama's spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said "truly epitomized greatness." That man is Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church are trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. Obama should stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke "GLORK" Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek. He is MAD!!! --

OBAM YOU'RE NO JFK --

"GLORK" Obama looks like Alfred E. Newman: "Tales Calculated To Drive You." He is a MUSLIM "Glork" He's MAD!!! Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of Mad. The face had drifted through American pictography for decades before being claimed by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman after he spotted it on the bulletin board in the office of Ballantine Books editor Bernard Shir-Cliff, later a contributor to various magazines created by Kurtzman.
Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM "PATWANG-FWEEE" and stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake "GLORK" Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek.

Michelle Obama should be ashamed.

"GLORK" Michelle Obama should be ashamed of her separatist-racist connection to Farrakhan and Chicago's Trinity United Church trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. If Michelle Obama new what her husband -- the Hope-A-Dope, Fonster Monster -- Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama did in Harlem, she would wash her wide-open, Hus-suey loving MUSILM mouth out, with twenty-four (24) mule-team double-cross X-boX-BorraX. He is a MUSLIM "Glork" It’s time to introduce this false, fake "GLORK" Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo "GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA" Police Department Buffalo Creek. He's MAD!!!

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/