Obama’s pick of Tim
Kaine for the DNC Chair means a continuation or expansion of the DNC’s Faith
Outreach. Dan Gilgoff explains on his blog God and Country
“Barack Obama’s
decision to tap Virginia
Gov. Tim Kaine to be the next Democratic National Committee
chairman is a sign that the party will very likely continue and perhaps expand
on the unprecedented faith outreach initiatives that Howard Dean launched
during his tenure as chair.
Kaine’s 2005 run
for governor was one of the few statewide races in the year following the
Democrats’ landslide defeat among so-called values voters, and his bid became a
test case for many of the faith-based tactics that have now become commonplace
among Democrats.” more on Tim Kaine and faith
It will be
interesting to see what this means for the debate in the DNC on personal morality issues. Will the faith initiatives be pitted against pro-choice, gay rights and women’s
groups? This doesn’t have to happen, but it might.
Hopefully religious pro-choice groups and religious pro-LGBT rights groups will sit at the table along side pro-life groups. to talk about a “common good” strategy. It
seems as though the Obama campaign walked the fine line and succeeded. Yet I remember at the faith caucuses in
Denver where there didn’t seem to be many representatives from the pro-choice
wing of the party present and gay people weren’t mentioned at all.
