Purpose-Driven Candidate? By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, has a date next month with Rick Warren, the megachurch pastor and best-selling author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” a move that could give Mr. Obama, who is black, exposure to millions of white churchgoers as he decides whether to run for president in 2008.
Mr. Obama will appear, alongside Bono and Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, at World AIDS Day at Mr. Warren’s huge Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., on Dec. 1.
Is it a step toward active support for Mr. Obama? Although Mr. Warren is a theological conservative whose politics would seem closer to those of Mr. Brownback, he has championed causes like the environment and fighting the genocide in Darfur.
David Axelrod, an adviser to Mr. Obama, would say only that the senator and Mr. Warren have a continuing “dialogue.”