Mar
4
Morally outraged - when convenient
March 4, 2008 |
Last week John McCain went out his way to condemn talk-show host Bill Cunningham because he mentioned Barack Obama’s middle name during a rally. This week, McCain is a little more loath to crititicize an erstwhile supporter.
McCain has been endorsed by televangelist and anti-Catholic bigot John Hagee. Now, a person can’t really control who endorses them. It’s not fair to condemn a person because of a single endorsement by a whackjob - thus my refusal to blog about Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement of Obama. But McCain’s comments about Hagee seem rather weak when you consider the lengths to which he went last week to distance himself from a supporter.
His initial response was to say that he was “very proud” of Hagee’s “spiritual leadership,” noting, however, “That does not mean that I support or endorse or agree with some of the things that Pastor Hagee might have said or positions that he may have taken on other issues.”
Now, in an official statement, he is saying that “in no way did I intend for his [Hagee’s] endorsement to suggest that I in turn agree with all of Pastor Hagee’s views, which I obviously do not.”
Eh.
Purely from a political standpoint it makes sense for McCain not to totally dimiss Hagee. As a commenter at AmPap notes, he needs to secure the Evangelical vote. But Mr. Straight-Talk Express should, theoretically, be above such petty political considerations.
Again, we can’t expect a candidate to distance himself from every supporter with whom he doesn’t completely agree with on every issue. But McCain has established his own high standards, and it’s his own fault when he fails to meet those elevated standards.
More from Jay Anderson, who blogged about this last week, and Stephen Bainbridge. If McCain went out and actively solicited Hagee’s endorsement, then that makes matters even worse.
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