This one does make me scratch my head.

Warren is pretty much your run-of-the-mill evangelist money-grubbing dickhead.

If the Obama camp thinks that picking this guy will somehow be an olive branch to the Christian Right, they're out of their minds.

We need less poll trolls and more honest leadership.

Pandering to bigotry and ignorance never does any good.

Who cares? Obama can't associate with people who have different views?

However, they should probably just make the inauguration a secular event.

I'm in a wait-and-see kind of mood about this. It's ultimately a low-risk for him politically. Liberals might get annoyed about it, but most of what they'll be saying to press will be defaming of Rick Warren, not Obama.

If, in four years time, people say they won't vote to re-elect Obama because of Rick Warren at the inauguration, I'll personally go and slap every one of them upside the head.

The effect it's having on the right and middle is what we should watch for. I guarantee, the invocation before the inauguration will get coverage from all networks and if Warren sets a conciliatory tone, this could come out as a net benefit for Obama.

If Warren starts talking about how we have to fight the rising gay tide, he's gonna get marginalized by the mainstream, like Dobson and Falwell and their ilk. Sunshine is the best disinfectant, so they say.

It's irritating to be sure, but I'm thinking it's more likely than not to work out to his benefit.

A lot of people are saying Warren will be the next generation's Dobson, and if Obama can get the battle to de-escalate, that could have some very far-ranging benefit to liberals over the coming decades.

Rick Warren is an idiot, and as such should be nowhere near a intellectual President.

Picking Warren validates that tubby douchebag's agenda, whether Obama intended for it to do so or not. The Evangelicals will see it as Obama agreeing with their message, and those on the left that are angered by it see it as just more pandering to bigotry and hate. Oh but he cares about the poor and the environment, bull shit, he cares about spreading hate and collecting money from the suckers that follow him.

I don't like the idea of any religious mumbo-jumbo during a governmental event. But to pick an asshole like Warren is just a slap in the face to every free thinking person in this country, I'd have rather had Jeremiah Wright, at least he knows this country has a lot of work to do to make up for the last 8 years.

Sadly, the religious right still has a lot of influence. A bone needs to be thrown to them every now and then to make them more willing to work with Obama's agenda - all things considered, the invocation is a great bone to throw, because it's very high profile but has NO actual power.

Misguided though he is, the fact that Rick Warren does believe in AIDS research and trying to be responsible about climate change separates him from virtually every other "Christian Right" pastor out there. Basically, if he's the next James Dobson, the Christian Right could do a hell of a lot worse.

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