Dobson-lite to speak at Obama inauguration

"They say we're disturbing the peace. But what really disturbs them is that we're disturbing the war." -Howard Zinn

So now President-elect Obama is going to have far right 'celebrity preacher' Rich Warren speak at his inauguration. This is a guy who said the main difference between him and James Dobson was tone, that Warren was nicer in pedalling his bigotry.

More annoying is how the punditocracy shamelessly praises Obama every time he gives the finger to the people who enthusiastically supported him. Every time Obama names a non-progressive to his team (pretty much every time so far), the yapping heads rave about it, saying "liberals can't have everything their own way" or "he's governing as a centrist."

I understand Obama's desire to have a balanced team and to be as inclusive as possible. It's certainly a change from the Bush strategy of giving the finger to the 49-53% of the country who didn't vote for him.

Balance is useful but where's the balance? He has conservative Democrats, corporatists, anti-abortionists, homophobes and theocrats. But where are the progressives? I understand they can't get every position, but a few? What kind of balance is it if you include everyone except your most ardent supporters?

Who knows, maybe he'll find a job in his administration for James Dobson.

I can't say I'm disappointed in him because I didn't expect much in the first place, other than him not being anti-science, anti-intellectual and hate mongering. And that's certainly an improvement but I know a lot of well-intentioned people who had high hopes for him. And I'm sure most of them will continue to give him a free pass for the next 4-8 years just because he'll be less nightmarish than the medieval regime he's replacing. But I wonder if Rick Warren is what they had in mind.