Gays, Jews, liberals, and other groups that supported Obama in his race to the White House are disenchanted, wondering why in the world he chose Rev. Rick Warren, darling of the Fundamentalists to preside at his swearing in ceremony.
Obama’s embrace of Warren is calculated.
If these supporters were paying attention as early as 2005, they would understand the appeal that Warren has for Obama besides the obvious desire to tap the born-again block that constitutes a strong block of 23% or between 30-50 million voters in 2012.
Yes, it’s a political, not a religious choice by the cagey Obama who has calculated every move and every bit of information coming out of his campaign. But there are other reasons for the mutual attraction. Warren has worked big time to stop AIDS and poverty in Africa and especially in Rwanda, an area dear to Obama’s heart.
Moreover, Warren is a supreme business manager who has parlayed his Saddleback Church into a mega-million dollar enterprise just the way Obama has parlayed his run into a campaign that utilized the Internet the way no campaign has. He raked in millions and millions of donations and at the end, had 30 million surplus to play with.
In Warren’s speeches at Harvard, Obama’s alma mater and the source of many of his nominees, Warren received standing ovations. Both stars move in elite circles and have tremendous adoring base of followers.
And Obama is not the first star to tap the service of Rev. Warren at a function. Bono beat him to it by arranging to make Warren official pastor of the Live 8 concert last summer in Philadelphia.
