"I'm not vetting my pastor," Obama told "The View." "I didn't have a research team during the course of 20 years to go pull every sermon he's given and see if there's something offensive that he's said."
As Greg Sargent then points out, Obama may not have vetted his pastor, but there's no doubt Republicans will.
Let me be absolutely clear about this: this will backfire. I realize that the GOP thinks it has the religious right on lockdown, but if it starts actively going after a well-respected minister in a very public way, I can assure you it will make many, many religious Americans extremely uncomfortable.
Obama's answer rests on a premise that most Americans will both respect and admire. He is essentially saying, "I wasn't in church to play politics. I was there to worship God." Religious diversity is something most Americans see as one of this country's greatest strengths. And if that's true generally, its particularly true about our diversity of Christian faiths. So the GOp might think attacking his religion is a winning strategy, but I doubt it. A clever response or two, and suddenly you've become the party that is attacking someone's Christian faith. And there is just no way that is going to work. Mark my words on this one... If they keep this up, there's gonna be one hell of a backlash coming.
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