Obama picks Rick Warren for inaugural invocation, gay leaders furious

[Beet]

This is Obama being Obama. Saddleback, faith- based initiatives, the vignettes in his book about talking to pro- life religious conservatives... I've always had the sense that he's very serious about the whole reaching out to evangelicals thing. He has invited Focus on the Family along with MoveOn.org to a pre-inauguration forum. It's not just "kowtowing to suburban evangelicals" either, many of the African- Americans who put Obama over the top in his elections are evangelical and it makes sense for them and white evangelicals to make common cause where possible. On the other hand, Obama feels that gays didn't put him over the top, and they are less numerous, so maybe he thinks they're less important. But we'll see.