New York Magazine has an has an interesting little piece on Barack Obama:
A woman stands up and tosses Obama what I assume she thinks is a bit of red meat. What, she asks, does the senator think of the pervasiveness of religion in public discourse these days? Obama doesn�t take the bait.
�No one would say that Dr. King should leave his moral vision at the door before getting involved in public-policy debate,� he answers. �He says, �All God�s children.� �Black man and white man, Jew and Gentile, Protestant and Catholic.� He was speaking religiously. So we have to remember that not every mention of God is automatically threatening a theocracy.
�On the other hand,� he continues, �religious folks need to understand that separation of church and state isn�t there just to protect the state from religion, but religion from the state.� He points out that, historically speaking, the most ardent American supporters of the separation between church and state were Evangelicals�and Jefferson and Franklin. �Who were Deists, by the way,� he adds, �but challenged all kinds of aspects of Christianity. They didn�t even necessarily believe in the divinity of Christ, which is not something that gets talked about a lot.�
That’s good, but it’s not the cool part; this is:
Obama�s first year in office, he voted for cloture on the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court (though not for the nomination itself), earning dozens of angry posts on Daily Kos, a hugely well-trafficked liberal blog. Obama responded with a polite but stern four-page note.
�One good test as to whether folks are doing interesting work is, Can they surprise me?� he tells me. �And increasingly, when I read Daily Kos, it doesn�t surprise me. It�s all just exactly what I would expect.�
Now that’s a Democrat who can see straight.