The Politics of "I Hope You Didn't Hear That"

The conclusion of the Obama campaign gospel concert with anti-gay activist Donnie McClurkin was ugly.

The whole controversy might have been forgotten in the swell of gospel sound except Mr. McClurkin turned the final half hour of the three-hour concert into a revival meeting about the lightning rod he has become for the Obama campaign.

He approached the subject gingerly at first. Then, just when the concert had seemed to reach its pitch and about to end, Mr. McClurkin returned to it with a full-blown plea: “Don’t call me a bigot or anti-gay when I have suffered the same feelings,” he cried.

“God delivered me from homosexuality,” he added. He then told the audience to believe the Bible over the blogs: “God is the only way.” The crowd sang and clapped along in full support....

Mr. McClurkin’s support for Mr. Obama could signal to some black evangelical voters that race and religion are more important than Mr. Obama’s support for gay rights.

And the gay preacher brought in to represent the other side, I guess, said a short prayer, said nothing about his sexual orientation, and left.

Well, Barack achieved his purpose - signaling that he's "one of you guys" to black evangelicals. I wonder if it was worth it to sell out an entire class of Americans.