Barack Obama, Doing The Lord’s Work (With Our Secular Tax Dollars)

Posted by on . 15 comments.

AP: Obama to expand Bush’s faith based programs

Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush’s program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — support some ability to hire and fire based on faith.
[...]
He also planned to talk bluntly about the genesis of his Christian faith in his work as a community organizer in Chicago, and its importance to him now.

“In time, I came to see faith as being both a personal commitment to Christ and a commitment to my community; that while I could sit in church and pray all I want, I wouldn’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I went out and did the Lord’s work,” he was to say.

Can’t even say we didn’t see it coming.

Comments

  1. MsJoanne says:
    July 1, 2008 at 11:31 am

    Except that there was some corrections to the original AP piece:

    http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16056.html

  2. sarabeth says:
    July 1, 2008 at 11:41 am

    I still get a queasy feeling when I hear candidates with a cult-like following talking about “fulfilling God’s will” and doing “the Lord’s work”.

  3. MsJoanne says:
    July 1, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    And with that I agree wholeheartedly.

    I struggle with many things Obama has said of late. FISA is sticking in my craw in a hugely big way. I am trying to come to grips with the fact that he is a politician and he is going to have to say crap like this to get elected since we have become a nation of people unable to think without the Rush O’Hannity’s out there telling us what, when and how to think.

    Reality, I suppose.

    And I HATE it.

    All that said, Obama beats McCain and that is the only thing I am trying to keep my mind on. Little else matters. We have two choices (real choices; Barr and Nader not withstanding) and Obama is 1000% better than McCain. That has to carry me through for now, I suppose.

  4. sarabeth says:
    July 1, 2008 at 2:00 pm

    he is going to have to say crap like this to get elected

    I don’t see why.

    And the more people who have to hold their nose and vote for him only because he’s not McCain, the more that so-called enthusiasm gap between him and McCain is going to evaporate.

    If he says enough crap like this, he might even let McCain steal the election. That’ll be some achievement.

    On the positive side, if Obama does manage to hold off McCain, by the time he wins maybe nobody will expect anything of him anymore.

  5. matt says:
    July 1, 2008 at 2:37 pm

    >he is going to have to say crap like this to get elected

    that’s old politics right there.

    leaders lead, they don’t say what they think people want to hear.

    candidate obama is endangering the things the democratic party is supposed to stand for. and i won’t stand for it.

  6. MsJoanne says:
    July 1, 2008 at 3:08 pm

    Old politics?

    Considering the masses in America are dumb as fucking stumps, do you think telling the truth is going to get someone elected?

    Bush totally screwed up the economy. The only way to fix this ungodly deficit is to increase taxes (somewhere, corporate, personal, cap gains, inheritance, what have you). How many votes will honesty get you there?

    We have to be smart about this, don’t we? Do you want McCain to win?

    That should be the only question ever going through anyone’s mind. The only question, period. There is a perfect world and there is reality. Do you not agree with defeating McCain should be the only thing on anyone’s mind?

  7. sarabeth says:
    July 1, 2008 at 3:50 pm

    And Obama should do whatever he thinks it takes, no matter how unprincipled?

    Isn’t that the Bush play-book?

  8. MsJoanne says:
    July 1, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    As I said: McCain or Obama.

    That is all I have to know. And whatever it takes, so to answer your question, it’s not a Bush playbook, it’s a politics 101 playbook. But it matters none to me.

    McCain or Obama?

  9. matt says:
    July 1, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    >As I said: McCain or Obama.

    frame it any way you’d like. repeat yourself multiple times in the same comment. whatever.

    i’ve been making the case against obama here for nearly three years. he’s barely even a nominal democrat, he doesn’t speak for me, and so the odds of me voting for him are approaching zero. deal with it.

    there are more important things than electing barack obama. and keeping the democratic party from becoming a center-right organization is certainly one of those things.

    i’ll be ready with a full post about all of this soon, but feel free to repeat your mantra as many times as you like until then. it’s not getting tiresome or anything.

  10. MsJoanne says:
    July 1, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    Really? You think that at this particular point in time there is nothing more important than defeating McCain? He of all war all the time, no clue about the economy, nothing for healthcare unless you count insurance companies.

    You vote as you choose. I am not telling you what to do.

    Me? There is no way I would do anything to make a President McCain. Nothing.

    I would vote for a hamster before voting for any Gooper or anyone who would help that Gooper win.

  11. matt says:
    July 1, 2008 at 6:05 pm

    > You think that at this particular point in time there is nothing more important than defeating McCain?

    was i not clear enough for you?

  12. MsJoanne says:
    July 1, 2008 at 7:10 pm

    Yes, you did.

    And it is a HIGHLY unrealistic goal. Sorry to say. Not that I wouldn’t love to see it. But it’s not going to happen. Sorry to have to say it. Reality is what it is.

  13. matt says:
    July 1, 2008 at 7:18 pm

    so i made myself clear, but you felt the need to repeat yourself anyway?

    what i find truly hilarious is that you’re ok with obama dragging the party to the center right, and i’m the asshole for not voting for him.

    i really would like for you to check back for my obama post. hopefully monday or tuesday.

  14. MsJoanne says:
    July 1, 2008 at 7:21 pm

    What I am OK with is Obama doing whatever it takes to get elected.

    I am not OK with much of what he is saying. But we need to not have a President McCain.

    At this point it is Whatever. It. Takes.

  15. sarabeth says:
    July 2, 2008 at 3:43 am

    1) “Whatever. It. Takes.” is precisely the thinking that brought us Abu Ghraib, and extraordinary rendition, and waterboarding, and warrantless wiretapping, and all the other greatest hits of the Bush administration. That’s why it’s the Bush play-book and not Politics 101 (nor, as the Bushies insist, Patriotism 101).

    2) You seem to be saying: “I am not OK with much of what he is saying, but I’m OK with him saying it.”