McCain Rejects Controversial Endorsement: Hypocrisy or Integrity?

[russ_watters]

I couldn't figure out which thread it was, but when we were discussing the Wright thing once before, people tried to find some hypocrisy in McCain wrt some of the nuts that have endorsed him. I still maintain they are unequivalent situations, nevertheless, here it is:

UNION CITY, California (AP) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain has rejected the endorsement of an influential Texas televangelist criticized for his anti-Catholic views.
John Hagee, the Texas preacher, withdrew his endorsement at the same time.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-22-mccain-rejects-preacher-hager_N.htm

I think it is kind of a useless gesture, as an "endorsement" is just just what happens when a person who is famous enough to make the papers says who they support for President. There is nothing more to it than that, and nothing reciprocal implied by it. Nevertheless, it is nice to see McCain say, essentially, 'I don't want the support of people like you'. I don't think I've ever seen anyone reject an endorsement before.

 

[Poop-Loops]

I still maintain they are unequivalent situations, nevertheless, here it is:

Of course they're not equivalent. Wright had his entire career spanning over 20 years condensed into several second soundbites that took his words out of context.

Hagee is batsh*t insane.

I think it is kind of a useless gesture, as an "endorsement" is just just what happens when a person who is famous enough to make the papers says who they support for President. There is nothing more to it than that, and nothing reciprocal implied by it. Nevertheless, it is nice to see McCain say, essentially, 'I don't want the support of people like you'. I don't think I've ever seen anyone reject an endorsement before.

Especially after having asked that person to endorse him.

 

[Gokul43201]

There is nothing more to it than that, and nothing reciprocal implied by it.

Agreed that there is nothing reciprocal implied by an endorsement alone. But in the case of Hagee (and Falwell, and Parsley) the endorsement was actually sought by McCain, and the announcement was made in a widely televised public event with McCain sharing a stage with Hagee (et al). So, it most definitely is reciprocal.

It's also interesting that McCain, who previously refused to reject Hagee's endorsement while the primary was in full swing is now strongly rejecting it when it's time to switch to General Election mode.

 

[russ_watters]

It's also interesting that McCain, who previously refused to reject Hagee's endorsement while the primary was in full swing is now strongly rejecting it when it's time to switch to General Election mode.

Yes, it is. Perhaps that was a gambit designed to curry favor with the zealots to get the nomination -- then reject them to appear more moderate for the GE. I like McCain, but he is a politician...

 

[Gokul43201]

Nevertheless, it is nice to see McCain say, essentially, 'I don't want the support of people like you'. I don't think I've ever seen anyone reject an endorsement before.

Guess you missed when Obama rejected Farrakhan's endorsement during one of the debates. That was a good debate for Hillary.

As for McCain, I liked him way more when he was less of a politician. The transformation of McCain has been the saddest thing about this election season.

 

[Gokul43201]

McCain has also rejected Rod Parsley's endorsement, hours after rejecting Hagee's. And there wasn't anything new that came out about Parsley. So it looks almost entirely like politicking rather than a decision based on principles.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.co...endorsement-of-a-second-controversial-pastor/

 

[mathwonk]

i conjecture that mccain would have done better in the election if he had never kissed up to the religious right, i.e. never visited liberty university, ...i think a lot of people, including me, had a very positive view of him a few years ago, and lots of people who are going to vote for obama would have preferred to vote instead for the "old mccain".

so i suggest that he could have quite possibly won with his original stands, but is now going to lose miserably. i mean who was the religious right going to vote for between him and obama. ? or did he have to do that to kill off huckaby?

i am not a student of these fine points, but he seems to me to have made a mistake.

of course if i am correct, we may see the old mccain try to come back to life after he gets the nomination.

 

[edward]

Hagee carried some heavy baggage with his obvious hatred of the Catholic Church.

 

[turbo]

Hagee is a nut who believes that God allowed Hitler to come to power to drive the Jews (at least the ones he didn't kill) back to Israel in preparation for Armageddon. He wants to see the ME at war because he thinks it will escalate into a conflagration that will trigger the second coming of Christ. Why McCain actively sought the endorsement of this idiot in the first place is beyond me. The fact that he waited this long to disavow him after Hagee's insane comments have been circulating for months is equally puzzling. There are a lot of young evangelicals who are disenchanted with these hard-line ministers, and McCain would have been better served by appearing to be less hard-line, lest he drive these younger Christians to vote for Obama.

 

[turbo]

Hagee carried some heavy baggage with his obvious hatred of the Catholic Church.

That may well have been the overriding reason for McCain to dump Hagee. Clinton got a lot of support from Catholics in the rust-belt and McCain could not afford to offend that demographic. He certainly let Hagee's Hitler/Jew comments roil around the Internet for WAY too long, but now the general election phase is impending, he's got to do damage-control with Catholics. Despite the drum-beat of Clinton surrogates that Obama cannot win the Jewish vote and will lose in the general election, McCain has dared to drive Jews to the Democratic nominee with his association with Hagee. His neo-con handlers have apparently decided that dumping Hagee in May will induce amnesia in Catholics and Jews in November.

 

[Gokul43201]

i conjecture that mccain would have done better in the election if he had never kissed up to the religious right, i.e. never visited liberty university, ...


i think a lot of people, including me, had a very positive view of him a few years ago, and lots of people who are going to vote for obama would have preferred to vote instead for the "old mccain".

so i suggest that he could have quite possibly won with his original stands, but is now going to lose miserably. i mean who was the religious right going to vote for between him and obama. ? or did he have to do that to kill off huckaby?

i am not a student of these fine points, but he seems to me to have made a mistake.

Recall 2000. McCain rejected the Religious Right from the get go and called Falwell and Robertson out for being "agents of intolerance". He got thrashed by Bush (Rove) in the Primary.

This time, he made it clear he wasn't going repeat the same strategy.

of course if i am correct, we may see the old mccain try to come back to life after he gets the nomination.

McCain has been the Republican nominee now for over two months...and it's only been more flip-flopping and pandering. This is truly a shame.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioy90nF2anI&feature=related

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Hagee is a nut who believes that God allowed Hitler to come to power to drive the Jews (at least the ones he didn't kill) back to Israel in preparation for Armageddon. He wants to see the ME at war because he thinks it will escalate into a conflagration that will trigger the second coming of Christ.

Yes, so we can conclude that Hagee believes that McCain will help to bring about the end of the world. Now that is one fine endorsement!

The irony is that I completely understand what Hagee was saying and found it to be completely unoffensive. He made the specific leap that Hitler was a part of the end-time prophecies, which is just one of probably thousands of interpretations of the scriptures, but there was really nothing offensive or outrageous from a bibilical point of view. I would actually like to know exactly what about his statements McCain refutes. If someone took him to task on this point, he would quickly find himself stuck in a corner from a religious point of view.

 

[wildman]

Hagee is an example of why McCain will have a hard time making hay of Rev. Wright's crazy sermons.