Other Editorials Condemning the Warren Selection

Richard Cohen, Op-Ed Columnist, The Washington Post:

... I can understand Obama's desire to embrace constituencies that have rejected him. Evangelicals are in that category and Warren is an important evangelical leader with whom, Obama said, "we're not going to agree on every single issue." He went on to say, "We can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans." Sounds nice.

But what we do not "hold in common" is the dehumanization of homosexuals. What we do not hold in common is the belief that gays are perverts who have chosen their sexual orientation on some sort of whim. What we do not hold in common is the exaltation of ignorance that has led and will lead to discrimination and violence.

Finally, what we do not hold in common is the categorization of a civil rights issue -- the rights of gays to be treated equally -- as some sort of cranky cultural difference. For that we need moral leadership, which, on this occasion, Obama has failed to provide. For some people, that's nothing to celebrate. ...

Derrick Z. Jackson, Op-Ed Columnist, Boston Globe:

...Obama has generally exhibited good judgment on gay issues. In June 2007, he rightfully slammed President Bush's nomination of cardiologist James Holsinger to be surgeon general. Holsinger was a highly credentialed former Kentucky health and family services secretary and former chancellor of the University of Kentucky medical center. But his nomination went nowhere, partially because of a 1991 religious paper he wrote titled "Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality." Holsinger wrote that "the varied sexual practices of homosexual men have resulted in a diverse and expanded concept of sexually transmitted diseases and associated trauma." He concluded that "when the complementarity of the sexes is breached, injuries and diseases may occur."

Obama issued a statement saying, "America's top doctor should be a doctor for all Americans, and so I have serious reservations about nominating someone who would inject his own anti-gay ideology into critical decisions about the health and well-being of our nation . . . the United States surgeon general's office is no place for bigotry or ideology that would trump science and good judgment."

Yet here is Obama exercising terrible judgment on someone who just got done injecting anti-gay ideology into politics in the biggest state in the nation. It is nice that Warren and many evangelicals are increasingly involved in the environment and global poverty. But it seems that Obama is having a little PJSD here, as in Post Jeremiah Stress Disorder. Having nearly had his campaign destroyed by the tapes of his former pastor Jeremiah Wright blasting America as a hopelessly racist nation, Obama seems compelled to close his eyes to one of the most powerful forms of conservative-driven bigotry left in this country. ...