Obama's Haymaker.

• Author: Gray, Kevin Alexander
• Position: At Ground Level - Barack Obama - Viewpoint essay

Barack Obama has been getting desperate in South Carolina. If Obama doesn't win this state with its large African American voter base, the race may be over for him. His poll numbers in South Carolina have been up and down. Hillary Clinton appears to have the overall lead in the state, as well as with black voters. Clinton also has the edge with black women, who regularly vote at a higher rate than black men.

It's no surprise that part of his primary strategy here aims at black church-going voters. The church is the most organized part of the black community, and churchgoers are reliable voters. Hillary Clinton already has advantages here. She's hired local high-priced preacher-politician-businessman Darrell Jackson. And her husband Bill's clout with blacks puts additional pressure on Obama.

So Obama threw a haymaker but it wasn't aimed at Clinton. The target was the gay and lesbian community. Obama's wild swing involved having four of the most abrasively anti-gay gospel singers represent his campaign on his "Embrace the Courage" gospel music tour in South Carolina this fall. The gay-bashing headliners included the Reverends Donnie McClurkin and Hezekiah Walker, the Pentecostal pastor of the Brooklyn megachurch the Love Fellowship Tabernacle. It also featured Mary Mary, a sister act duo.

The Mary Mary sisters compare gays to murderers and prostitutes. In an interview with Vibe magazine, one of the singers said, "They [gays] have issues and need somebody to encourage them like everybody else--just like the murderer, just like the one full of pride, just like the prostitute."

McClurkin's previous political involvement was performing for George Bush at the Republican National Convention in 2004. Now he's singing for Obama. And, while stumping for the candidate, McClurkin didn't just get on stage, sing, and shut up, as some in the Obama campaign hoped he would do. He sermonized: "God delivered me from homosexuality"--as though one could simply "pray the gay away." The predominantly black crowd inside the Township Auditorium in Columbia clapped their approval of McClurkin's message. Meanwhile, a small, mostly white group of gay rights supporters picketed outside the venue.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Obama justified his embrace of the bigoted evangelicals by saying he was "reaching out...