Barack Obama Tours With Anti-Gay Singer

WASHINGTON, DC -- Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama is following in George Bush' footsteps with a gospel tour in South Carolina with homophobic gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, seeking support from conservative Black Christians in the state.

Barack Obama is facing strong competition from Hillary Clinton in South Carolina and the tour is Obama's latest effort to attract people of faith to his campaign.

Joining him on the tour is gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, an ex-gay and notorious homophobe who performed at the Republican National Convention in 2004. McClurkin has vowed to battle "the curse of homosexuality," and believes that gays can be turned straight with religious intervention.

In a post on Huffington Post, political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson called Obama's move shameless and reprehensible:

"Legions have bought his pitch, and have shelled out millions to bankroll his campaign. But healing and consensus building does not mean sucking up to someone that publicly boasts that he's in "a war" against gays, and that the aim of his war is to "cure" them. That's what McClurkin has said. Polls show that more Americans than ever say that they support civil rights for gays, and a torrent of gay themed TV shows present non-stereotypical depictions of gays. But this increased tolerance has not dissipated the hostility that far too many blacks, especially hard core Bible thumping blacks, feel toward gays. Obama has spent months telling everyone that he's everything that Bush isn't. He can proof it by saying a resounding no to McClurkin and to gay bashing."