Challenge Pastor Rick Warren to a Theological Debate

A great idea from the Courage Campaign.

Let's challenge Pastor Rick Warren to a theological debate on the issue of gay marriage.

The Oblogger has marched in far too many losing protest marches to think that these 1960s-style forms of activism are still effective. It's time for new methods to increase voter awareness.

I'm all for being proactive rather than reactive, and this strikes me as a potentially effective form of dialogue.

And for too long, the Christian right has been the only voice acknowledged as being Christian. This debate could be a great forum for the Christian left, which a lot of people (particularly Christians) do not even know exists or that it is based in its own analysis of the Gospel.

From the Courage Campaign:

"I'm opposed to redefinition of a 5,000 year definition of marriage. I'm opposed to having a brother and sister being together and calling that marriage. I'm opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that marriage. I'm opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage."
-- Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church, December 15, 2008


Incest. Pedophilia. Polygamy.

When Pastor Rick Warren was asked to clarify this statement -- if he actually equates same-sex marriage with incest, pedophilia and polygamy -- his answer was direct and unequivocal: "Oh, I do."

That didn't stop President-elect Barack Obama from choosing Pastor Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration -- an appalling mistake that will forever tarnish our country's celebration of Obama's historic ascendance to the White House.

While President-elect Obama has chosen to ignore the troubling beliefs of the man who will spiritually usher in his presidency, Californians can not ignore Rick Warren and his Saddleback Church followers, based in Orange County.

We can not ignore Rick Warren's fervent support for Proposition 8 or his mobilization of thousands of evangelical Christians to enshrine discrimination into our state constitution.

Harvey Milk did not ignore John Briggs in 1978, when Briggs sought to pass Proposition 6 -- the infamous "Briggs Initiative" that attempted to ban gay and lesbian teachers, and anyone who supported them, from our California's public schools. Milk challenged Briggs to debates across the state.

And we're not going to ignore Rick Warren. That's why we're asking you to give Pastor Warren a new invitation -- a Courage Campaign invitation to a public debate on same-sex marriage with Reverend Eric Lee, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) of Greater Los Angeles.

It's time to challenge Rick Warren to an open, honest debate about same-sex marriage. Click here now to join us, by signing your name to our invitation to Rev. Warren to debate Rev. Eric Lee. On December 24, the Courage Campaign will deliver your signatures to Pastor Warren at the Saddleback Church in Orange County:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/RickWarrenDebate

You may not know Rev. Eric Lee. But you should.

Rev. Eric Lee is a courageous leader on marriage equality in the faith community and in the African American community. Representing the SCLC, founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Lee expressed his strong opposition to Prop 8 in October by taking a stand with the Courage Campaign against the Mormon Church's heavy involvement in the Prop 8 campaign.

Now, Rev. Lee is taking a stand again, challenging Pastor Warren to a debate about Prop 8 and same-sex marriage.

Rev. Eric Lee needs your support to challenge Rev. Rick Warren to debate Prop 8 and explain Warren's comparison of same-sex marriage to incest, pedophilia and polygamy. Please sign here -- and ask your friends to gather as many signatures as possible -- before December 24:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/RickWarrenDebate

Thank you for everything you are doing to restore marriage equality and push for progressive change.

Rick Jacobs
Chair

Obama Camp's Response to Rick Warren Pick

More pastor disaster.

Many on the left and in the LGBT community are furious about Pastor Rick Warren giving the opening invocation prayer at the Inauguration.

While I understand the hurt and sense of betrayal, the Oblogger plans to withhold judgment until after Obama gets in office and creates policy, which is the important thing.

Obama will have to demonstrate his commitment to his LGBT constituency, which is sick and tired of getting thrown under the political bus... and rightly so.

But please... can cooler heads prevail? And may we let Obama get in office before we disown him? I say short-term sacrifice for long-term gain.

Rick Warren and I are on opposite sides of the ideological fence on so many issues: a woman's right to choose, stem cell research, school prayer, and gay marriage.

But I'm not up in arms about this choice because I don't see this invocation as an endorsement of his views, but rather Obama's doing just as he said he was going to do and inviting those with whom you have differences to be part of the table.

And can we please get real? Barack Hussein Obama is a black (biracial) man who scares the crap out of a sizable number of Americans. He's scary, he's foreign... they feel that their way of life is threatened somehow by his presidency.

Creating progressive change, like a healthcare agenda, will take a broad coalition with a variety of political views.

Obama has got to alleviate the fear of these people and let them know that he will be the president for all Americans and not just a wild-eyed lefty.

Change is good. We voted for change. But when there is too much change, people get scared and there is a backlash. Do you want Obama to be a one-term president? Pulling people so far outside their comfort zones that they go back to something that feels familar in the next election? We have to make baby steps to change.

Proposition 8 passed because there was not enough outreach from the LGBT community into poor communities. Black and Latino pastors told their congregation to vote for it. They did as they were told.

Proposition 8 passed with a narrow victory. I firmly believe that if the LGBT political strategists had done their due diligence they could have peeled off enough votes to defeat it.

As it stands, we have to move forward and know that there is a gaping need for more outreach into communities of color and more dialogue (however heated).

The Internet can be a good place for these conversations to take place. People can hash out their differences around these issues and not worry that they're going to get punched in the face.

Believe me, I would love to be wrong, but I don't think that the campaign to get Obama to rescind the Warren invitation is going to be effective. If Obama were to rescind it, imagine the media firestorm about Obama "caving to the libruls!" and being weak.

Here is the Obama camp's response to the Warren pick.

A spokeswoman for President-elect Barack Obama defended the choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation, saying it reflects Obama’s desire to have “the most open and inclusive inauguration in history.” Obama's selection of Warren drew heated criticism from gay activists Wednesday.

“Warren has been a passionate advocate on behalf of the poor and has really led evangelicals to champion the interest who suffer from HIV and AIDS and been an outspoken voice on issue of global warming,” said Linda Douglass. “President-elect Obama has made it clear that he doesn’t agree with Warren on issues around the LGBT community.” Douglass said it’s notable that Joseph Lowery, [Note: Lowery is for gay marriage] who has been a strong advocate for civil rights for all and was a close friend of Martin Luther King, is giving the benediction.

Come on Obamanauts, let's "make nice" and have a good time at the Inauguration. We've worked hard... but the real work is still to come.

Service Nation

Did you know that Jan. 19, Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, is a national day of service?... (well, you do now.)

Obama has asked that we devote Jan 19, the day before the historic inauguration, to community service. Service will be an integral part of the Obama administration's agenda.

Service Nation is asking folks to sign their declaration of service... Michelle Obama did.

Lend to an Entrepreneur: Join the Oblogger's Kiva Team

One of the Oblogger's favorite nonprofits is Kiva.org. Kiva is a distributor of microcredit funds to entrepreneurs in developing regions.

Here's the "official" pitch:

I want to recruit you to my lending team, Barack Oblogger, on Kiva.org, a non-profit website that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world. You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay the loan, you get your money back.

If you join my lending team, we can work together to alleviate poverty. Once you're a part of the team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva "count" towards our team's impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments still come to you - but you can also choose to have the loan show up in our team's collective portfolio, so our team's overall impact will grow!

Help someone who wants the tools to help themselves. Sign up for the Oblogger's Kiva team today!

For those of you who think that you're broke and can't afford to give (or wonder why you should), see where you are on the Global Rich List for little perspective.

Obama's Weekly Address

Remarks of President-elect Barack Obama

Radio Address on the Economy
Saturday, December 13, 2008

Good morning.

Earlier this week, we learned that the number of Americans filing their first claim for unemployment insurance rose to a nearly 30-year high. This news reflects the pain that’s been rippling across our entire economy. Jobs are being cut. Wages are being slashed. Credit is tight and people can’t get loans. In cities and towns all across this country, families enter a holiday season with unease and uncertainty.

To end this economic crisis, we must end the mortgage crisis where it began. This all started when Americans took out mortgages they couldn’t afford. Some were reckless, aware of the risks they were accepting, but many were innocent, tricked by lenders out to make a quick buck. With banks creating securities they could not value, and regulators looking the other way, the problem began infecting the whole economy, leading to the crisis we’re now facing.

One in ten families who owns a home is now in some form of distress, the most ever recorded. This is deeply troubling. It not only shakes the foundation of our economy, but the foundation of the American Dream. There is nothing more fundamental than having a home to call your own. It’s not just a place to live or raise your children or return after a hard day’s work -- it’s the cornerstone of a family’s financial security.

To stem the rising tide of foreclosures and strengthen our economy, I’ve asked my economic team to develop a bold plan that will dramatically increase the number of families who can stay in their homes. But this plan will only work with a comprehensive, coordinated federal effort to make it a reality. We need every part of our government working together -- from the Treasury Department to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the agency that protects the money you’ve put in the bank. And few will be more essential to this effort than the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

From providing shelter to those displaced by Katrina to giving help to those facing the loss of a home to revitalizing our cities and communities, HUD’s role has never been more important. Since its founding, HUD has been dedicated to tearing down barriers in access to affordable housing -- in an effort to make America more equal and more just. Too often, these efforts have had mixed results.

That is why we cannot keep doing things the old Washington way. We cannot keep throwing money at the problem, hoping for a different result. We need to approach the old challenge of affordable housing with new energy, new ideas, and a new, efficient style of leadership. We need to understand that the old ways of looking at our cities just won’t do. That means promoting cities as the backbone of regional growth by not only solving the problems in our cities, but seizing the opportunities in our growing suburbs, exurbs, and metropolitan areas. No one knows this better than the outstanding public servant I am announcing today as our next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development -- Shaun Donovan.

As Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development in New York City, Shaun has led the effort to create the largest housing plan in the nation, helping hundreds of thousands of our citizens buy or rent their homes. Prior to joining Mayor Bloomberg’s administration, Shaun worked both in business, where he was responsible for affordable housing investments, and at one of our nation’s top universities, where he researched and wrote about housing issues. This appointment represents something of a homecoming for Shaun, who worked at HUD in the Clinton administration, leading an effort to help make housing affordable for nearly two million Americans. Trained as an architect, Shaun understands housing down to how homes are designed, built, and wired.

With experience that stretches from the public sector to the private sector to academia, Shaun will bring to this important post fresh thinking, unencumbered by old ideology and outdated ideas. He understands that we need to move past the stale arguments that say low-income Americans shouldn’t even try to own a home or that our mortgage crisis is due solely to a few greedy lenders. He knows that we can put the dream of owning a home within reach for more families, so long as we’re making loans in the right way, and so long as those who buy a home are prepared for the responsibilities of homeownership.

In the end, expanding access to affordable housing isn’t just about caring for the least fortunate among us and strengthening our middle class -- it’s about ending our housing mess, climbing out of our financial crisis, and putting our economy on the path to long-term growth and prosperity. And that is what Shaun and I will work to do together when I am President of the United States.

Thank you.

Welcome the Obamas

Washington Post is accepting classified ads welcoming Barack (and his beautiful family) to the White House.

Bush Ducks Thrown Shoes

What a bizarre image for the President of the United States to have blasted across the media in his last month of office.

The Oblogger cannot condone the throwing of shoes at our President. But I do hope that Obama can help restore the image of America across the world.

And, truly, the last thing Al Qaeda wants is a kinder, friendlier United States. Without America as the villain, how would they recruit and grow terrorists? They would be marginalized as a bunch of kooky guys out there in the mountains who want teenagers to blow themselves up. Uh, thanks...but no thanks. I've got a life to lead.

Al Qaeda needs us as an enemy in order to survive. Let's not give them the fodder.

Obama Administration Picks

Join the Discussion: Economy

Join the discussion about the economy on Change.gov.

Brian Deese, economic policy team member, responds to comments from voters about the economy:

New Comments System

The Oblogger has installed a new comments system from Intense Debate. (I figured if it's good enough for Change.gov it's good enough for me!)

We are having a few technical glitches uploading all past comments. Please bear with us during this process.

Maddow's Reinactment of Blago's Profane Tirade

On her show, Rachel Maddow aired a reinactment of Blago's profanity-laced tirade against Barack Obama, the Chicago Tribune, and a host of others.

Lead a Health Care Discussion Group

Click here to lead an Obama health care discussion group in your home, a local coffee shop, or elsewhere in your community.

From Change.gov:

Health care is a top priority for President-elect Obama, and he wants your help in reforming the system to provide quality, affordable health care for all Americans. That's why this holiday season, we're asking you to give us the gift of your ideas and input.

Sign up to lead a Health Care Community Discussion in your home, community center, or even a local coffee shop, anytime from December 15th to 31st.

We'll provide you with a special moderator kit that will give you everything you need to get the discussion going. And Senator Tom Daschle, the leader of the Transition's Health Policy Team, will even choose one discussion to attend in person.

Obama Ethics Bill Put Squeeze on Blagojevich

Obama's efforts to push ethics legislation in Illinois forced Blago's hand.

If this New York Times piece is accurate, it appears as though the Illinois governor was trying to shake down as many campaign contributors as possible before the legislation took effect on January 1.

Transition Team Open for Questions

Change.gov wants to hear from you.

Click here to tell the Obama transition team which questions you'd most like them to answer.

Sarah Palin's Christmas Card Hacked!

Courtesy of that beacon of responsible journalism, Weekly World News (home of Bat Boy).

Did Rahm Emanuel Blow the Whistle?

Speculation continues... did Rahm Emanuel blow the whistle on Blagojevich?

Illinois Gov. Says "F**k Obama"

Today's headlines report that Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich has been taken into custody.

Blagojevich allegedly wanted financial renumeration in exchange for replacing Obama's senate seat with campaign advisor Valerie Jarrett.

Federal wiretaps detail conversations with Blagojevich.

From Politico:

Federal prosecutors allege that Blagojevich explored one possible quid-pro-quo – he’d appoint a top adviser to Obama in exchange for Obama giving Blagojevich the post as as secretary of health and human services. The indictment makes clear the Obama adviser is Valerie Jarrett, now an Obama White House aide.

“Unless I get something real good [for Senate candidate 1], s***, I’ll just send myself, you know what I’m saying,” Blagojevich was taped saying on Nov. 3, the day before Election Day.

Blagojevich, a Democrat, added that the Senate seat: “is a f***ing valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.”

Also from Politico:

The tapes reveal a two-term governor who no longer wants his job, badly wants cash and is determined to leverage a financial benefit out of his appointment powers.

He also appears to think little of the president-elect, whom he calls a "motherf***er" at one point.

“F**k him,” Blagojoveich says of Obama during a lengthy call with top aides and his wife recorded on November 10th, “For nothing? F**k him.”

Obviously, we'll know more about this as the details emerge. But I'm wondering whether someone from Obama's camp cooperated with the feds to get this bozo out of office?

If so, then it's brilliant and I respect Obama even more. Sounds like this Blagojevich turkey was a real impediment toward getting the senate seat filled with someone competent.

In any case, if these allegations are true, I hope Blagojevich goes down and HARD. As it stands now, any senate seat picked by him will be tainted with the stench of corruption.

Going to the Inauguration?

Get Inauguration news and updates. Go to Inauguration Tips for the latest buzz.

Supreme Court Rejects Obama Citizenship Challenge

This restores my faith in the federal government.

The Supreme Court has declined to hear a suit from a man claiming that Obama is not a natural born citizen of the United States.

Now we all know that this won't satisfy the tinfoil hat brigade and will push wild-eyed claims of government coverup deeper into the bowels of the Internet.

No rational thought will disturb the the anti-Obama fanatics.

Any excuse by those cheap rat bastards to not pay their taxes.

Black helicopters, anyone?

MTV to Host Inaugural Ball

A hot ticket item from MTV: and ServiceNation.

MTV announced that it has partnered with ServiceNation to co-host the "Be the Change Inaugural Ball" in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2009 — the same day President-elect Barack Obama will take his oath of office.

The event will celebrate the massive youth-voter turnout in this month's presidential election and an active commitment from America's youth to impart positive social change through volunteer service. ServiceNation is an organization that campaigns to increase support for expanding national service programs like the Peace Corps and Americorps. In September, it hosted a forum with Obama and Senator John McCain, in which both presidential candidates agreed on the importance of community involvement.

A record 24 million people between the ages of 18 and 29 voted in the 2008 presidential election, accounting for 18 percent of the 133.3 million voters who hit the polls. It marked the third major election in a row with increased youth-voter numbers, and for the first time in 20 years, the number of young voters surpassed the number of voters over the age of 65.

The ball will be staged at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center and will feature several leading artists, celebrities and government officials (to be named later), alongside hundreds of young people who've been chosen to attend based on their demonstrated volunteerism.

The "Be the Change Inaugural Ball" will be televised live across all MTV platforms, including MTV, MTV2, MTV Tr3s, mtvU, MTV Hits, MTV Jams and MTV.com on the evening of January 20. Exact air times will be announced in the coming weeks.

Barack Obama Weekly Address 12/06/08

Remarks of President-elect Barack Obama
Radio Address on the Economy
Saturday, December 6, 2008

Good morning.

Yesterday, we received another painful reminder of the serious economic challenge our country is facing when we learned that 533,000 jobs were lost in November alone, the single worst month of job loss in over three decades. That puts the total number of jobs lost in this recession at nearly 2 million.

But this isn’t about numbers. It’s about each of the families those numbers represent. It’s about the rising unease and frustration that so many of you are feeling during this holiday season. Will you be able to put your kids through college? Will you be able to afford health care? Will you be able to retire with dignity and security? Will your job or your husband’s job or your daughter’s or son's job be the next one cut?

These are the questions that keep so many Americans awake at night. But it is not the first time these questions have been asked. We have faced difficult times before, times when our economic destiny seemed to be slipping out of our hands. And at each moment, we have risen to meet the challenge, as one people united by a sense of common purpose. And I know that Americans can rise to the moment once again.

But we need action – and action now. That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars.

We won’t do it the old Washington way. We won’t just throw money at the problem. We’ll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve -- by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world.

Today, I am announcing a few key parts of my plan. First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.

Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money.

Third, my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.

As we renew our schools and highways, we’ll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they’ll get that chance when I’m President – because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world.

In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.

These are a few parts of the economic recovery plan that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks. When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately. We need to act with the urgency this moment demands to save or create at least two and a half million jobs so that the nearly two million Americans who’ve lost them know that they have a future. And that’s exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States.

Thanks for listening.

Obama Birth Certificate Brouhaha

Slate has a good piece rounding up the details about the Internet "controversy" questioning whether Obama is a natural-born citizen and is thus eligible to be President of the United States.

For those still wasting their time chasing this phantom, I would advise you to: 1. get a life; and 2. just because Techdude says it, doesn't mean it's true.

Relive the Speeches

Go to BarackTV to watch the historic speeches.

Join the Discussion on the Economy

Click here to join the discussion on the economy on Change.gov. Help shape public policy in the upcoming Obama administration. Be part of the change.

From Washington to Obama, Morphed

Things that make you go hmmm...

Obama's Remarks to Nation's Governors

Obama spoke before an assembly of the nation's governors on Tuesday. He pledged to work hand-in-hand with them on matters pertaining to the economy.

Behind-the-Scenes at the Economic Transition Team

From Change.gov:

Last week, President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden introduced the nation to the team they've chosen to help guide us out of the economic crisis.

Our cameras were there as the news developed, and we asked Brian Deese, a member of the Transition's Economic Policy Team, to give us a behind-the-scenes look at the process.

We interviewed Paul Volcker and Austan Goolsbee -- both of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board -- and Peter Orszag, Director-designate of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to hear how they plan to approach the challenges and opportunities ahead of us.

Watch the video below.

Obama Says "Bye Bye" to Bush Ambassadors

From Washington Post:

The incoming Obama administration has notified all politically-appointed ambassadors that they must vacate their posts as of Jan. 20, the day President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office, a State Department official said.

The clean slate will open up prime opportunities for the president-elect to reward political supporters with posts in London, Paris, Tokyo and the like. The notice to diplomatic posts was issued this week.

Read more here

Americans Approve of Obama Transition

From a recent Gallup poll:

Four weeks after Election Day, Americans have found some political common ground: A whopping 78 percent approve of how President-elect Barack Obama is handling the transition, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll.

Sen. Daschle Responds on Health Care

From Change.gov:

More than 3,500 reader comments later, we’re excited to report on the success of our recent community discussion on health care, the first open conversation of its kind on Change.gov.

Members of our Health care Transition team, including former Senator Tom Daschle, were eager to dig in to the comments and find out more about the issues and concerns that drove the community conversation online.

Here's a look at what they had to say:

Richardson To Be Nominated as Commerce Secretary

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is expected to be nominated as Commerce Secretary tomorrow.

Slaves Helped Build the White House

From CNN:

In January, President-elect Barack Obama and his family will make history, becoming the first African-American first family to move into the White House -- a house with a history of slavery. In fact, the legacy of American presidents owning slaves goes all the way back to George Washington.

Twelve American presidents owned slaves and eight of them, starting with Washington, owned slaves while they lived in the White House. Almost from the very start, slaves were a common sight in the executive mansion. A list of construction workers building the White House in 1795 includes five slaves - named Tom, Peter, Ben, Harry and Daniel -- all put to work as carpenters. Other slaves worked as masons in the government quarries, cutting the stone for early government buildings, including the White House and U.S. Capitol. According to records kept by the White House Historical Association, slaves often worked seven days a week -- even in the hot and humid Washington summers.

Read more here

Here is a video from the CNN piece:

Hillary Clinton to Become Secretary of State

Click here to watch Hillary's speech at the press conference.

Obama's Remarks on World AIDS Day

Click here to watch Obama's statement on the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day before the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health hosted by Pastor Rick Warren in Washington, D.C.

Obama's Statement on Mumbai Massacre

Here is Obama's statement on the tragedy in Mumbai:

"Michelle and I send our deepest condolences to the loved ones of the American citizens who lost their lives in the outrageous terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Our thoughts and prayers are with them, and with all who have been touched by this terrible tragedy.

"These terrorists who targeted innocent civilians will not defeat India's great democracy, nor shake the will of a global coalition to defeat them. The United States must stand with India and all nations and people who are committed to destroying terrorist networks, and defeating their hate-filled ideology.

"There is one president at a time. I will continue to closely monitor the situation on the ground in Mumbai, and am grateful for the cooperation of the Bush Administration in keeping me and my staff updated. We fully support the Bush Administration's efforts to protect American citizens and assist the government of India during this tragic time," said President-elect Obama.