did someone open a window?

He's done it again. Read a Balloon Juice blurb about Obama's choice to lead the inaugural invocation and my first reaction was, "What? Yeech." But then I thought, as I read further, 'well, throw the yahoos a bone where it doesn't matter policy-wise, which not only makes nice, it also relegates that kind of thing to where it belongs, an obviously religious context without the implication of validity one inch beyond it.' And then a commenter also pointed out that while the guy is a bible-thumping bigot, at least he's not a complete neanderthal.

So this begs the question: is Obama really this incredibly cagey and strategericish, or am I just playing mental Twister so I stay comfortable with his decisions, stoking the afterglow?