Maybe it's too late, but let me apologize. Please accept my apologies.

I know I have been very defensive of my candidate, Barack Obama, in the last two days, in regards to the Donnie case, and I'm aware I might have personally offended several DUers, especially LGBT DUers, by perhaps downplaying their outrage at the situation.

Please keep in mind I'm a supporter of civil rights for all Americans, and that I personally wish our top candidates were more commited with protecting the rights of LGBT citizens, which face the biggest civil rights challenge of our time. Sadly, neither my candidate nor JE and HRC have been brave enough to step up to this huge challenge of our time.

I sincerely wish Obama didn't get associated with this guy. I do understand he is trying to appeal to the black Christian vote, which is not necessarily a bad thing to do, but I wish he was a bit more careful choosing who to invite.

Understand that I'm a passionate Obama supporter- he's the first politician that has inspired me (I'm 24). This man is someone I look up to- someone that has marked my life deeply, and I truly believe he is not a bigot or a homophobe, and that he doesn't share the views of Donnie at all. I KNOW he is a good man- a man that would make us all proud as President. I've defended him, maybe a bit too blindly, because I truly believe in him.

But, upon reflection of the responses I've gotten from fellow DUers to my "Obama defense" threads and posts, I've realized I have probably made a mistake by minimizing the outrage many in the LGBT community might feel in regards to this situation.

For instance, I, Katzenkavalier, sincerely apologize with anyone that might have been offended with my responses or posts in regards to the situation, and I truly hope my candidate will respond to this situation in a satisfactory way for all of us. I truly believe he will.

Thanks, and once again, I'm sorry.

-Katzenkavalier

I think Obama missed his window of opportunity to make this right. He could have chosen from thousands of gospel choirs but he chose this particular guy? Why?

I am really disspointed in Obama and I can't vote for him because of this.

But, even as a strong supporter of a particular candidate, we can't afford to be so devoted
to our choice that we lose our objectivity.

Over the last couple days, I've asked for and received some great, reasoned opinions
from DUers about this Donnie Whatsisname flap. I felt I needed more information in order
to evaluate how and to what extent this issue might effect my opinion of Obama.
And, for me, I came to the conclusion that this is not something small and insignificant
as it was being characterized by many but, rather, is an important issue and needs to be
corrected, by Obama, and the sooner the better.

P.S. I can't believe you're only 24. It's wonderful that you're so involved in politics and in making this
planet a better place.

you.

Kudos to you for your openness and humility.

Best regards.

(I am not touching your apology, of course, because you've certainly never done anything to me. But as this thing has been going on I frequently thought, "I hope this flap doesn't hurt or disillusion Katzenkavalier" because your passion and good-heartedness are so evident.)

I don't think Obama is a bigot or homophobe either.

I just think he's made a poor political calculation, but there's still time for him to fix it.

I sincerely hope he does.

And, we're all a little testy right now, including you and me. :-)

No apology necessary here.

:toast: MKJ

for you to make this apology. Was it blackmail or physical threats or what?









*It's cool- you sound sincere to me, I was just riffing off the Stark conspiracy theorists.

Actually, Bluebear inspired me. :)

:P

It does take class AND a good character to make an apology. Too bad some of the bad guys can't put their egos aside and learn from you, Katz.

It's good to have you back.:toast: I'll be the first in line cheering Obama when he tosses the idiot.

:thumbsup:

You are young and it is great that Obama inspires you.

I honestly don't think he is a homophobe. I just think... well... he is a politician. And you take the good with the bad. I hope you continue to be inspired.


:)

Though I'm not an Obama supporter, I believe as you do that there's nothing of the bigot or homophobe in his character. He has, however, really made a terrible mistake with this. And keep in mind that the outrage is not just from the gay community, but from those of us who wholeheartedly support them in what really is the next great civil rights struggle.

It's not too late for your candidate to make amends, as you have been generous enough to do here. I just hope he does so soon. There's so much to like about Obama, and he has a great future ahead, whether or not that includes the White House. But this sorry episode has tarnished him in the eyes of many who otherwise wish him well. I hope, as you do, that he responds satisfactorily. I hope he realizes how important that response is, not only to his campaign, but to America.

that your posts were becoming a little more rah!-rah! than usual. What's admirable, though,
is that you were able to take a deep breath and make it right again with that calm, sincere post you made.

Good job.

Yeah, it's been a big day, and yeah, it's a big issue, and yeah, you really care about the guy, but do you mind if the rest of the mob gets a chance to say a little something, too?

This is obviously a big, wrenching issue for you and your humanity's rubbed raw by all this, but the guy's made some serious missteps here. Let the waters still a little, will you?

For his overzealous behavior.

Jeez.

Why yell at him for exactly what he's apologizing for?

Please understand that at least some of the anger is coming from a place of betrayal, too. If we didn't KNOW that Obama's a better man than this, there would be no shock or outrage.

Hillary Clinton who is know far and wide for her support of those same civil rights.

Having the shoe on the other foot might temper all of this endless fighting.

Probably hopeless, but...

Lovely and heartfelt apology. Obama's not my guy, but I nonetheless admire him and those who support him.

I would be frustrated beyond words if others couldn't see what I already knew about my candidate. I would guess this hasn't been a lot of fun for you either.

I appreciate your passion and your reaching out to others. It's a classy and inspiring move. Thanks again. :thumbsup:

:thumbsup:

and agree with you that he is not a bigot or homophobe. Your apology to the LGBT DU community was above and beyond the call of duty.....a very classy thing to do.

I didn't catch the posts you mention, have just blown by all the threads on the topic, but you are a class act.

:toast:

Julie

"Sadly, neither my candidate nor JE and HRC have been brave enough to step up to this huge challenge of our time."

You are so right on that one. I've heard all three say that they are committed to GLBT equality...but yet, they all oppose same-sex marriage equality. There's a big disconnect there.

I don't think Barack Obama is a bigot. Certainly not. His campaign has made a big mistake with this McClurkin situation. And it's not too late for the Obama campaign to fix this problem.

I appreciate your committment to civil rights for all. And I thank you for understanding our outrage and anger.

And thank you for your apology.

I'm actually not an Obama supporter and haven't made up my mind.

I do hope that people reading my messages understand that I don't minimize their outrage and I don't want to tell them how to feel.

I do think that some of the actions they are taking in response to their anger are not totally rational and may be counterproductive.

It was sort of like the Sistah Souljah moment in one way where a deft political move by Bill Clinton always made me have the slightest doubt about him...and yet I know he had the cojones to be president and probably get elected.

In the same way, when I was considering Jerry Brown at the same time, I believed Brown to be a thoughtful guy and one who mostly was guided by his sense of morality, this sometimes helped him politically, but sometimes did not. Nevertheless, during the debate where Jerry Brown questioned Clinton about Hillary's business dealings, Clinton did not answer the charge but said something like "don't go after my wife..." I thought Clinton's outrage was a little faux, but I knew that Clinton was the guy that was going to get us the White House and get things I cared about done.

If anything, it was his 8 years as President that made me really like the man himself because he did get so much done that I cared about. But if I had ruled him out because of his associations, his words, his political moves and if others had done the same, he wouldn't have become president. I'm glad my head determined who I voted for and volunteered for in 1992, my heart came along later.

That's the point I'm making. You just have to be shrewd about whom you support. If you think that Obama will take those bigoted votes (from anti gay folks) and use them to slide through better Civil Rights leglislation than we have ever seen before, LGBT stuff specifically, and that he can get it done because he knows how to talk to/pander to the evangelicals (like when he said "My God is an awesome God" which was quoting an evangelical contemporary hymn), then base your vote on whomever you think can deliver you the best outcome because as President Clinton said about the presidency, "it's a job". You get the person you think can be the best for that job.

If you want a saint, hire him/her as your pastor/mentor/spiritual advisor.

That's all I was getting at. I just think the anger makes us lose our focus and it's directed at people that we're invested in to get us out of this mess and these people we're invested in really do want to have better rights for LGBT, a better foreign policy, a government that helps the poor, the kids, the middle class more and helps the wealthiest and most connected less. It is these big ideas that should drive our vote, NOT our anger over individual incidents, which I do not minimize.

You know, LBJ was a great president for Civil Rights, the best ever, Vietnam was a disaster of the first order. Would Barry Goldwater been a better choice in 1964? FDR was our greatest president, tied with Lincoln, but he interred the Japanese. I'm just saying that there is no surefire way to elect someone who is perfect who will never do anything wrong, who will never give improper offense and in searching for that person, you may overlook the best person for "the job".

That's what I'm saying. Have your fun going after McClurkin, he made his statements, he should be prepared to handle the criticism associated with it. But don't bring Obama down because of some other guy whom I didn't even know of until two days ago. Proportional response.

:hug:

Politicians are politicians and any of them can have something like this arise as they work for votes. It doesn't mean they're bad people, but it's their job and often doing their job can conflict with their own principles. Candidates have people on their official staffs whose views are not their own, so having someone for a single event, in no official campaign capacity, who isn't speaking but singing, might not have seemed so out of line. However, it was. I've written to Obama to explain the conflict many of us are feeling between the pragmatic vote-getting and the better-self ideals. His statement, to my mind was really fine in the pragmatic sense, fine but not sufficient for a candidate I know in my heart values human rights dearly. I too hope for the best. But I can also see how campaigns find themselves in these fixes, so I'm not taking my vote away, either.

posted this, Katz..It helps. I wish there were some way for you and your fellow passionate supporters of Obama to get to his campaign and stress how hypocritical this is to have him in a fund raising show.

There's a thread around here somewhere of this donnie guy at the 2004 gop convention(puke) singing about bushit.

I really relate to this line "Understand that I'm a passionate Obama supporter-he's the first politician that has inspired me (I'm 24)."

Dean did the same thing for me (I'm 29).

I do not agree with Obama on this one, however. He should separate himself from all people who are known bigots. Obama probably knew about some of the comments that McClurkin and that other group, Mary Mary, have said but he still allowed them to perform at a campaign event. To me, that is wrong, unacceptable and intolerable.

But thanks for this post.

:hi:

Classy apology, Katz. I'm 25 and I encourage all of the "young" people here to look into Biden. I know is suppsoed to be the "inspiring " one but BIDEN has actually inspired me more than any other politician ever has...

Well done.

TC

A very classy thing to do. :hi: