Dayo Olopade, a new Schwartz Fellow at New America, is taking questions today on the Obama Administration's faith-based initiatives in a live chat co-hosted by Politico.

You may participate in the chat below, or on the Politico website, starting at noon ET.

UPDATE: This chat has concluded, but you can read the transcript below. New America and Politico will be co-hosting chats mid-day each Tuesday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7653456.stm

Today we held a great event on religion in America with John Calhoun on his book, Hope Matters.

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/hope_matters

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2007/christianity_and_social_crisis_21st_century

I wanted to highlight a cool event we did last November on the anniversary of the publication of Christianity and the Social Crisis.

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2007/faith_line

Last summer we did a cool event on religious pluralism with Eboo Patel.  Link is above.

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/religion_and_workplace_flexibility

 I wanted to highlight a great event we did on Capitol Hill last June on Religion and the Workplace.  Link is above.

http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/against_us

On September 9 I hosted a great book event with ABC News Senior Foreign Correspondent, Jim Sciutto, on his new book about how America is viewed in the Muslim world.  The link is above.

There is a widespread assumption in the media that Barack Obama's race may well cost him the election.  The assumption is that unspoken racism will cause some people to pull back from voting for Obama and that when they are in the voting booth they will refrain from voting for him strictly because of his race.  Its the "Tom Bradley" factor.  It is very difficult to test or poll for such racism of course.

Yet could it be that race is more of an asset to Obama than a liability?  There is also speculation that the prospect of the first African American President will substantially increase voter turnout by blacks.  That there could be some voters who only vote for Obama because he is black.  Many black Republicans I have talked to and read about are seriously considering Obama. 

 I tend to think the negative impact of racism sadly will outweigh the increase in the black vote.  But we shouldn't just assume that.   

It is interesting at the start of the Democratic convention to note that the draft platform that they are beginning to discuss says more about what a faith initiative will not be than what it will be in an Obama Administration.  I bet the GOP platform will be more positive.   Not that it is negative.  The draft platform is just less positive than one would imagine.  This contrasts to Obama's rhetoric on the July 08 development and press release of his plans for the Council of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (as he will call it).  Though it does track somewhat his well known 2006 speech to Call to Renewal which sought to show the complexity of faith and policy in America. 

Below is the draft section on faith in the Democratic platform.  It uses traditional language is praising the place of faith and its importance in solving problems in America.  However, when it comes to specifics, the draft Democratic platform wants to make sure any faith based initiative does not endanger First Amendment protections, does not allow proselytizing, does not allow discrimination (they main issue of controversy in Congressional debates on the issue) and is used on programs that actually work.  All these points are right and important.  However, in a platform they show more concern from the Democrats about faith and government than their flowery language used in the past and that one would imagine in such a document.