The big event was today in South Carolina and while McClurkin did not use it as an opportunity to crusade on his “war” against gays, the whole thing went about as poorly as it could have. He was allowed to defend himself and was not challenged by the token gay preacher, nor did Obama address homophobia. NYT:

The whole controversy might have been forgotten in the swell of gospel sound except Mr. McClurkin turned the final half hour of the three-hour concert into a revival meeting about the lightning rod he has become for the Obama campaign.

He approached the subject gingerly at first. Then, just when the concert had seemed to reach its pitch and about to end, Mr. McClurkin returned to it with a full-blown plea: “Don’t call me a bigot or anti-gay when I have suffered the same feelings,” he cried.

“God delivered me from homosexuality,” he added. He then told the audience to believe the Bible over the blogs: “God is the only way.” The crowd sang and clapped along in full support.

McClurkin used the platform Obama provided him to rail against the blogs and gays. Then the candidate declined the opportunity to challenge McClurkin. The end result was this:

The political implications of his performance are not clear. The concert-goers we talked with afterward were generally more focused on making allowances for Mr. McClurkin’s past homosexuality than on anything about Mr. Obama.

Nobody heard the message of tolerance. Instead, they left giving excuses for McClurkin’s past homosexuality. Bigotry won the day.

Aravosis:

So, in the end, Obama let his “best” and “favorite” artist slam gays to thousands of African-Americans, in his name, and neither he nor his hand-chosen white gay preacher said anything in response. Class act, that Obama campaign. For them, creating a “dialogue” means the gay-basher gets to spread his bigotry to thousands while the candidate and the token gay STFU.

Pam:

It’s truly tragic that the closet door is not only shut, but padlocked because these same-gender-loving men — and the women who prefer not to know — are participating in encouraging the spread of HIV/AIDS through bible-beating and fear of rejection from the religious black community.

How will Obama respond to this? He is getting hammered on straight blogs too. Case in point kos saying:

It’s an all-out implosion by the Obama campaign. This truly is indefensible.

And of course, the Obama campaign has done a terrible job doing outreach to the blogs. In fact, their outreach guy quit in frustration. Their incompetence in this arena is proving quite damaging right now.