Reply #1: Some at DU have also suggested this is more positive than negative.

[ginnyinWI]

The Muslim thing is the biggest advantage: everyone is spreading far and wide the facts of Obama's church membership, being married there, etc, making the case for the Obama camp. That old "he's a Muslim" thing is going to be all but gone soon.
I agree that what is left won't be as damaging, and Obama has handled it masterfully with his statement yesterday. His tone wasn't defensive or fearful, it was sincere and maintained the moral high ground.

Has anyone, like me, begun to realize that we are not dealing with your average political team here? The Obama camp has successfully fought back smear after smear and still come out on top. They are re-writing the instruction manual for how this is done in today's media environment. I'm beginning to have more and more confidence that the politics of personal destruction has finally met its match!

Last night someone in GDP suggested the idea that the Obama camp might have even leaked this now because it was an advantageous time to get it over with. I don't know if I'd go that far, but it's not beyond possibility. If the RNC was smart, they would have hung onto this until the General Election. But another theory would be that they wanted to knock Obama out now so that they can run against HRC instead. Maybe they wanted to hit Obama so that they could protect Clinton from the Ferraro remarks damage. Stranger things have happened.

edit: I have to add that The Field's "concern trolls" are much in evidence around here, aren't they? Some of the most fearful, lily-livered comments come from some with low post counts. I'll quote The Field:
"Once again, people are worrying too much about “what might offend others,” a signature of 1970s, 1980s and 1990s politics. But beyond the partisan feigners of outrage, or the “concern trolls” fretting aloud about how “others” could be turned off, who is really offended out there?"