This just goes to show that if you dig one ditch, you better dig two. Just last week Conservatives were hanging Barack Obama out to dry about Louis Farrakahn endorsing him. Now John McCain faces the same thing with John Hagee endorsing him. Some people view his fire and brimstone preaching as extreme as Farrakahn's anti-sematic teachings. You really can't blame John McCain for distinguishing the difference between John Hagee's opinions and his own. He doesn't want to lose the Independent ,sympathetic, or Muslim vote. With the way things are looking now. He needs every vote he can get.
Mr. Hagee is a big boy, this isn't his first rodeo. I don't think John Hagee should take his endorsement back as some people have suggested. I'm sure he is used to people not being in full agreement with everything he says. He is quite the controversial figure himself on a consistent basis. I tend to agree with John McCain's strategy in this case. Stick with what brought you to the dance. He has never been a Cowboy for values in the past. Don't start trying to be one now. Just be quiet and let it do what it do.
Just last week:
http://indepcons.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-think-ill-pass-on-this-one.html
Huckabee Surprised by John Hagee's McCain Endorsement
ReplyDeletefrom The Christian Post
By Jennifer Riley
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee expressed dismay Thursday over the Rev. John Hagee’s endorsement of frontrunner John McCain, accusing the evangelical leader of putting politics ahead of principle.
“He just thought that the political rationale was he wanted to get on Sen. McCain’s team, and he thought he was gonna win the nomination,” Huckabee said after a Texarkana rally on Thursday, according to MSNBC. “I don’t think that’s a foregone conclusion, and even if I did, I would stand on principle more than I would politics.”
Huckabee said Hagee told him he endorsed McCain because he assumed he’d win the nomination.
“I felt that it was totally out of character for what I knew he believed,” Huckabee said, “or at least I thought he did.”
The former Arkansas governor said he was surprised by Hagee’s endorsement because he claims McCain lacks the commitment to the abortion issue. McCain has a 100 percent anti-abortion voting record, but he supports stem-cell research, which some pro-lifers equate with abortion because the embryo is destroyed during the extraction process.
Huckabee said he spoke with Hagee and expressed his “disappointment and surprise” and asked him to delay publicly supporting McCain. But the televangelist announced his endorsement of McCain at a news conference Wednesday.
Hagee, the pastor of the 17,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, is considered helpful to McCain’s image among evangelicals – who have overwhelmingly rallied behind Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor.
Thus far, evangelicals and Christian conservatives have been reluctant to back McCain, citing many instances where he strayed from the “right” agenda. Prominent Christian conservative leaders, such as Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, have criticized McCain as undependable on key conservative issues.
But Hagee defended McCain, citing his anti-abortion voting record and his support of Israel. The Texas megachurch pastor is arguably the nation’s staunchest pro-Israel Christian leader, having helped found Christians United for Israel, a lobbying group aimed at pressing Congress to support Israel.
Hagee’s endorsement could end up hurting Huckabee in the Texas primary on Mar. 4, which is critical for him to win to stay in the race.