McCain and pastor Hagee

Post below excerpted from Warner Todd Huston. See the original for links

As you should know by now, Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has a Wright problem. That would be a Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. problem. It turns out that Barack Obama's "spiritual mentor" has a long, long history of hatred against whites and the history of the U.S.A. But, late last week, news began to surface that one of John McCain's religious supporters, John Hagee, has made many harsh anti-Catholic statements in the past. As reports of Wright's disgusting, hate filled garbage has made the news earlier last week, many on the extreme left have pointed to the low profile that the McCain story has had as proof that the media is unfair, intimating that the media might even be on McCain's side.

It is true that John Hagee has made bigoted statements against the Catholic Church. It is also utterly true that Jeremiah Wright has made racist, hateful statements against all whites and the history of this country. But, for the left to imagine that the situations in which McCain and Obama find themselves are exactly the same shows that leftists who think this are either uninformed or disingenuous. The situations are not in any way comparable.

Before you even attempt to dismiss this as just another fawning excusing of the GOP candidate by a Republican apologist, I will inform you that I will not vote for John McCain under any circumstances. So, you cannot chalk this up to mere electoral partisanship. So, that said, there are major differences between McCain's endorsement by Hagee and Obama's endorsement by and 20 year long relationship Rev. Wright. The following points mark a stark difference between McCain/Hagee and Obama/Wright:

* In his book the Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama called Rev. Wright his "spiritual mentor." McCain has not made any such statement of Hagee.
* Obama had his children baptized by Rev. Wright. McCain's kids never knew Hagee when they were small.
* Rev. Wright performed Obama's marriage ceremony. McCain had never even met Hagee until he became the frontrunner for the GOP nomination.
* Obama chose Rev. Wright's church and attended it for 20 years. McCain has never attended Hagee's church.

These points are extremely important and mark a completely different relationship between the hatemonger Wright and Barack Obama and McCain and Hagee. It shows that Obama had many decades of intimacy with Rev. Wright proving that Wright's hate speech could not possibly have bothered Barack very much at all, much less have come as any surprise. While John McCain had only just met John Hagee proving that his history of anti-Catholic statements is not something that McCain could have had long and intimate contact with.

Of course, both candidates have disavowed their religious supporter's statements. Obama made his statement via the Huffington Post and McCain via the media with a statement to the Associated Press.

But there is absolutely no way to equate McCain's acceptance of the anti-Catholic Hagee's support with that of Obama's acceptance of the racist Wright's. Obama has no excuse to have only suddenly distanced himself form this hate filled, ranter whom he has called his "spiritual mentor." For decades Obama has known of, and sat in a congregation listening to, the wild-eyed rants by this man. Barack has accepted him as part of his family closely associated with his wife and children. Barack Hussein Obama has been very close with Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. for 20 some years. On the other hand, John McCain has only just met John Hagee. You just cannot equate the two.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your handy-dandy summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH