The shine is off Senator Barack Obama’s campaign for president. He did it to himself, His damage control was incomplete, and then he dug himself in deeper by compounding the problem with a civil rights speech in South Carolina.

by Geoff Staples

Sometimes the seemingly insignificant tells us more about a candidate than anything else. Such is the case with Senator Barack Obama. Obama organized a series of gospel concerts for black evangelicals in South Carolina. The objective was to bring them into the Obama for President camp.

Donnie McClurkin, a black gospel singer who claims to be cured of his homosexuality through Jesus Christ, headlined the events. (To see Mr McClurkin prance around the stage, you would never guess he had gone back into the closet.)

When challenged about McClurkin by LGBT and civil rights groups, Senator Obama ignored the concerns and not only kept McClurkin on the program, but allowed him to talk to the audience from the stage. Mr. McClurkin, as would be expected, told them that homosexuality is a sin and he had been cured through prayer.

Senator Obama apologized, and hired a gay evangelist to appear at later concerts in the series.

Totally necessary

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Barack Obama gave a civil rights speech in South Carolina in which he only addressed civil rights for blacks. There’s a reason for this: He didn’t mention for civil rights for gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, and transgender people. Watch. He will be questioned about this speech and he will say, “This particular speech was about blacks, so I didn’t mention any other groups.” He scrupulously didn’t mention anything about anyone except blacks so that he would have an excuse for not mentioning gays and lesbians — in the same state where he invited an anti-gay bigot on his campaign tour and then allowed him to attack gays and lesbians from the stage.

I guess it just slipped Obama’s mind that gays and lesbians don’t have the civil rights protections that blacks, and  all citizens in the United States enjoy – Except for GLBT folk. GS

Barack Obama | Clarendon, South Carolina | November 7^th, 2007

It’s a special honor to be here in Clarendon County. Because Clarendon County is the place that showed me and showed America that when ordinary people come together, they can do extraordinary things.

That’s the Clarendon County I know.

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