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Picking Rick Warren Brilliant Because It Riles Up The Left?
TPM Election Central — ... That aside, I'm with Steve Benen: Whatever short term political benefit this gives Obama is transitory at best, and it's easily outweighed by the downside: It gives an enormous platform, and the appearance of moderation, to someone who will subsequently use the legitimacy conferred on him to oppose Obama's agenda on social issues for the rest of his presidency. ...

More Warren Blowback
Shakesville — • The Blade Blog calls this Obama's first big mistake. • HRC sends a letter to Obama. • Steve knocks down some of the attempts to defend this selection politically, correctly concluding: "It's all risk, no reward." • And there is almost no concern about Warren being virulently anti-choice, despite the fact that he compares abortion to the Holocaust. "Of course I want to reduce the number of abortions," Warren told Beliefnet Editor-in-Chief Steven Waldman when asked if he was going to work with the Obama ...

Warren Addenda
Lawyers, Guns and Money — In addition to Rob's links below, make sure to read Sarah Posner. And as Steve Benen notes, even defenses based on crude political criteria are exceedingly unconvincing. It's unlikely in the extreme that Rick Warren's "purely symbolic" selection is going to attract any non-negligible number of reactionary evangelical voters, while slapping major Democratic constiuencies in the face surely carries its own risks. And worse, it elevates Warren's stature further, giving him "bipartsian" media credibility when he inevitably attacks any decent part of Obama's ...