Posted on 03/17/2008 5:00:30 PM PDT by forkinsocket
Don't presidential candidates get tired of apologizing for remarks they didn't make?
It's in the nature of campaigns to careen from the totally unexpected to the utterly unthinkable, but recent events in the presidential contest probably ought to be filed under the heading: "With friends like these."
By Friday, all three candidates had been forced to apologize for the offensive views of a prominent supporter. John McCain was first, when one of the evangelical ministers whose approval he has so assiduously courted turns out to have some inconvenient views. John Hagee, a prominent Texas televangelist, also happens to teach that the Catholic Church is "the whore of Babylon" and a "cult."
McCain, who appeared with Hagee on television to accept his endorsement, at first tried to brush off the matter. Better judgment -- and perhaps, consideration of the Catholic vote's importance -- ultimately prevailed, and the Arizona senator told the Associated Press: "I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee's, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics."
Hillary Rodham Clinton was next up, when former congresswoman and vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro told an interviewer: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position." Clinton tried several apologies and, Wednesday -- after Ferraro had resigned from the campaign's finance committee -- finally got it right: "I certainly do repudiate it."
It was Obama's turn Thursday, when, after a network television report, video clips began circulating of sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the recently retired pastor of the senator's Chicago church, Trinity United Church of Christ. In one, Wright raves: " 'God bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America. ..."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Actually his retirement isn’t in effect yet. He’s just on a leave of absence—to work for Obama’s campaign.
They should if they have been listening to those remarks for 20 years and if they gave $22,500 two years ago to support such remarks.
LA Times ^ | March 15, 2008 | Tim Rutten- Earning $7.50/hour with no health plan. Times are tough.
The denial didn’t work. Now let’s go for moral equivalence.
Big difference.
Hagee was not McCain’s spirtitual mentor for the last 20 years, nor did he attend Hagee’s church.
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