Rick Warren Will Give the Invocation at Barack Obama's Inauguration, Also, Santa Claus Isn't Real

If you hear a rumble of discontent when you open your door this morning, that's just millions of progressives complaining about the fact that unicorn-elect Barack Obama has chosen evangelical preacher Rick Warren to deliver the invocation on January 20.

Warren, whose Saddleback mega-church in California worships a special mega-Jesus, is most famous for hosting a candidates' forum during the campaign, doing charitable work in Africa and being vehemently opposed to abortion. Also gay people. These last two have some folks in a tizzy…

* People for the American Way president Kathryn Kolbert is "profoundly disappointed."

* The Daily Kos-ians are shocked.

* The commenters at Think Progress just want to know "WHY???" and "WTF??"

Meanwhile, over at the Huffington Post, Lee Stranahan takes a deep breath and tries to make some sense of the crushing disappointment…

There's something bigger at play here and you can't say Obama didn't warn you. He talked about reaching out, about expanding our politics and that crazy bastard actually meant it.

You know what else Barack Obama meant? That it's always smart for American politicians to pander to evangelical voters and their wealthy, well-connected leaders.

Well, he didn't talk about that, per se.

But he meant it.