Has Daily Kos Read Obama's Speech?

Liberal bloggers attack Obama

I was astounded to see the angry liberal postings about Obama's speech at Sen. Obama Steps In It in Kurtz's Media Notes at the WaPo. As one who has never shied away from the label liberal, I am disturbed by these attacks. Some of us who attended the conference shared that we felt many Christians viewed us as suspicious because we were liberal, and yet, among Democratic liberals we sometimes had our credentials questioned because of our faith.

It appears we were right. We can pretend that this situation does not exist, because it makes Democrats look bad in an election year. Or we can do like Obama did and try to confront the intersection of religion and politics in a thoughtful way.

Let us not become like the Republican Right, too focused on our own hot-button issues. It is far more important to fight poverty than to try to eliminate the word God from political discourse.

I was especially upset by Daily Kos, (Kos) as it is one of my favorites. It is very apparent that he based his comments upon press coverage of Obama's speech instead upong the speech itself. Take for instance the following characterization of Obama's speech by Kos:

Democrats aren't religious, they don't go to church and are secular atheists.

Please go to http://www.obama.senate.gov/speech for the entire text of Obama's speech and see if you read anything even remotely related to saying this.

Kos also makes it seem that Obama was somehow disrespectful toward other faiths. What did Obama actually say?

It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street in the Southside of Chicago one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. I didn't fall out in church. The questions I had didn't magically disappear. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt that I heard God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.

That's a path that has been shared by millions upon millions of Americans - evangelicals, Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims alike; some since birth, others at certain turning points in their lives. It is not something they set apart from the rest of their beliefs and values. In fact, it is often what drives their beliefs and their values. . . .

And by the way, we need Christians on Capitol Hill, Jews on Capitol Hill and Muslims on Capitol Hill talking about the estate tax. When you've got an estate tax debate that proposes a trillion dollars being taken out of social programs to go to a handful of folks who don't need and weren't even asking for it, you know that we need an injection of morality in our political debate.

I beg everyone to read Obama's speech for themselves and to remember that although liberal blogs are an important source of truth, they don't always get it right.