[dean_acheson]

Originally Posted by Tchocky

Taking a huge country like the US, and running a two-party system, this kind of thing is bound to happen. Morons and crazies have to choose between two. Most people are clever enough to realise that an endorsement cannot be controlled by a candidate, and does not change his/her views.
Like you said, news stations love it.

He can't and he shouldnt stop someone from endorsing him, it's silly and really small-scale.
The difference is he actively sought the endorsement of John Hagee, and expressed honour and admiration for him once he got it. Admiration for the guy who says "all Muslims are programmed to kill, and we can't negotiate with any of them". Imagine if Rev. Wright had said the same thing about Christians.
McCain didn't have to embrace him as a "spiritual guide". Same as Guiliani did with Pat Robertson. Remember that Robertson is on record as saying that 9/11 is America's fault.

Well, McCain didn't go to Hagee's church for 20 years and dump 20K plus in donations.

Hagee didn't marry him and his second wife.

Wright's comments are a great deal sillier than Mr. Hagee's. Saying something along the lines of the Islamic faith seeming to resort to the sword alot is different than saying that the US government created the AIDs virus to keep the Black community down.

Seems to me that this will be a greater deal of hurt to the great BHO than it will be to McCain, the latter of which is not running on some platform of 'hope' and 'change' and 'kumbya.'

The horrible thing is that BHO can't deal with this in a straight-forward way. That would be for him to say something like:
'hey, basically I'm a mulatto from Hawaii, and after working as a 'community organizer' in Chicago, and then leaving for law school, I realized how ambitious I was to be a big politician. For me to solidify my 'black' credentials, I needed to join an 'authentic' church, so I choose Trinity. Fact, drive a long way from my nice neighborhood to 'worship' there. Now, it would have been impossible without the links to the community that I garned through my attendance at that church and Pastor Wright for me to get elected to the Illinois state senate without this help, so for that, I'm forever greatful. Furthermore, if this President thing doesn't work out, I'll need his help running in Illinios to keep my current job.
Now, I am running for a job in an area a bit more 'ethnically diverse' than the southside of Chicago, namely, the President of the United States. Today I admit that Pastor Wright's ramblings, I have always thought believed a bit loony and are, furthermore unacceptable to my new consituency, which is the entire American people. So I pledge today not to go to church at Trinity and have my daughters attend services in which whitey and the U S of K K K A are regularllly castigated. Furthermore, I also pledge not to let my wife talk about how embarassed she is to be an American, I pledge to salute during the national anthem, and to wear an American flag pin on my lapel."


That's it, but BHO can't say this. Instead he gives a speech in which he says, you can't blame Wright, he's mad because of the 60s. The white community is the same way, since they are mad about losing jobs because of affirmative action, that's why they voted for Reagan. People in this country are mad over race, and by electing me you can help fix the anger. I'm sorry, but the old moral equivalence arguement might work for internet posting boards, but I expect higher from somebody who claims to be leading me to the promised land.

BHO just comes off as another less than slick pol who can't be honest about who he is, or what he wants. The problem with running on a Kumbya platform is that you have to be a bit different kind of pol., which OBH ain't. Besides his skin color, that is. His great problem is that once that new wears off most Americans aren't that interested in letting an unknown quality take the helm, all the illusions to Jack Kennedy nonwithstanding.