A Prize Endorsement?

The McCain campaign announced that Pastor John Hagee has publicly endorsed the senator. This is interesting on many fronts.

Within the Republican Party, going back to the days of Ronald Reagan, if a candidate did not have the imprimatur of the evangelicals (aka, quite conservative Christians), there was no hope for advancement. McCain has been struggling to shore up his conservative credentials, even as he has been vilified by many in the pantheon of Republican/conservative talk show radio hosts, e.g. as in Limbaugh's attacks on him. Now, McCain has gratefully accepted this endorsement that must be seen as manna from heaven for the campaign.

Mike Huckabee has long been thought to be the only legitimate choice for conservative Christians. Huckabee's credentials would seem to be impeccable. He is an ordained Southern Baptist minister; he supports all of the "right" causes in the "right" way, and then some - Huckabee has gone on record supporting a Colorado bill calling a fertilized egg "a person"; he even preached at Hagee's mega-cathedral at Christmas time. This endorsement must be a bitter blow to Huckabee, despite other conservative Christian leaders who have suported him.

The only problem with all of this for many Americans - and I would hope many Republicans -would be some of the stands that Hagee has taken. Hagee is one who claims that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment on New Orleans for their tolerance of homosexuality. Hagee opposes any concessions by the Israeli government to bring about a lasting peace in the Middle East; instead, he has criticized cease-fires, believing that Israel should go through and eliminate all of the Muslim groups that "threaten" the nation. In fact, Hagee seems to support a joint Israeli-American pre-emptive strike against Iran.

I have to wonder whether this endorsement is as much of a prize as McCain's campaign suggests. Since many political talking heads called for Obama to distance himself from the views of his pastor, will they do the same for McCain and Hagee? It will be interesting to see.