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• Sunday, August 17, 2008 11:38 AM

  Beating the post-Clinton banner, or warning Obama not to live what he preaches?

  For a publication so interested in taking the long road towards another Democratic Supermajority you kids sure like to pretend you're deaf and dumb with this guy a lot.

  I'd rather not have God in politics at all, that is true. We're a secular nation, he just shouldn't be there. But how else is Obama to be expected to address the problem of Evangelicals as an arbitrarily unified voting bloc? We can't wish them away, and if we are truly free thinking Americans, that is the last thing we ought to do. Variegation in opinion is the only way for a progressive nation to stay progressive, and that includes letting in the folks who talk to Jesus.

  Engagement and even, yes, mollification, is exactly what we need.

  What I would have liked to see instead of another chance to needle Obama for the impression of what he's doing instead of what he is actually doing is an examination of the potentially electorate-shifting promise of a liberal Candidate who is able to fit Christianity into his life and still use it to justify opinions and political stances the left would praise in any secular context.

  Since it's the only direct example used by the fair-minded author to support his point, I direct you to Obama's admonition of the Bush administration for allowing abortions to continue. While this is implicitly an example of Obama treading dangerous ground, it's explicitly an example of this very skill for vote-poaching in practice. To actually assume Obama is allowing the implication to be made that he would restrict the ability of abortions to be received is willfully myopic. How might a liberally minded religious President who would prefer to prevent as many abortions as possible instead of rhetorically decrying them but doing nothing act? Could he, possibly, give the full weight of his office to the efforts of Planned Parenthood and other governmental agencies to preach the value of birth control practices and cheap, easy access to the same?

  It's a one two punch at the GOP, it's a brilliant move, and it's clearly what a candidate like Obama would espouse.

  But, yes, please sir, may I have another attempt to try and remind us that even good liberals should view Obama with a sense of Not One Of Us and judge his campaign through wary eyes.

  —StephenAshley Read StephenAshley's other letters
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