McCain & Megamedia, Inc. claim he's not getting a pass on the story of the extremist pastors endorsing him. Rather, the megamedia have simply coincidentally focused on the McCain meme of distinguishing relationships that each candidate had with a pastor(s).
By focusing on the minutiae, the public is distracted from two key issues that voters may actually care about. One, politicians generally seek endorsements from persons who share their political ideology. The megamedia should ask McCain specifically whether he supports the political policies and religious doctrines advocated by these pastors for each issue not unequivocally rejected by McCain. Two, McCain denounced candidate pandering to "agents of intolerance" as a campaign strategy in 2000 but then embraced this strategy in 2006, the same year McCain started prepping for his 2008 campaign, which is an issue of his credibility, integrity and leadership as a potential US president.
In 2008, McCain "staked out an anti-pandering strategy of his own, casting himself as a "straight talker" who split with his party on issues like the Bush tax cuts, judicial nominees and campaign finance reform." Now, McCain is flipping and flopping so he can have his cake and eat it too. If McCain supports any of those extremist pastors' views, then he is clearly out of synch with mainstream voters and they have a right to know he is not "Mister Moderate" before the election. If McCain rejects the pastors' views, and still refuses to reject these endorsements, then he is clearly pandering to "agents of intolerance" on key issues of Middle East policy, war with Iran, women, gays, Jews, Muslims etc.
Piercing through this "belief" that McCain is "Mister Moderate" and "Mr. Credibility" is essential to motivating the megamedia to stop functioning as McCain's press team. The megamedia, such as Broder, view McCain as having impeccable credibility:
In an age of deep cynicism about politicians of both parties, McCain is the rare exception who is not assumed to be willing to sacrifice personal credibility to prevail in any contest.
The megamedia umbrella of credibility over McCain extends to his band of pastors. In September 2006, Hagee stated that Katrina was the "judgment of God against the city of New Orleans" for the sin of allowing a planned "homosexual parade" on the day Katrina hit NOLA. After McCain called these claims nonsense 9 times, Hagee proffered a pseudo backtracking that the megamedia called a "retraction" on April 25. However, this "retraction" merely stated that Hagee could not "know the mind of God concerning Hurricane Katrina. I should not have suggested otherwise."
When a woman on the call asked why he seemed to have backed away from his Katrina comments in face of criticism, Hagee said he hadn't. As for the Katrina, he said, God controls hurricanes and "God always punishes unconfessed sin." You do the math.
This is not the only pseudo "retraction" or "apology" riddled with escape hatches that the megamedia accepted as a declarative statement of retraction or apology. For example, today the megamedia is filled with headlines that "Pastor John Hagee says he's sorry for anti-Catholic remarks," but Hagee did not exactly apologize. Hagee stated he had "deep regret for any comments Catholics found hurtful." Yes, I'm sure he has deep regret that he was forced to issue a statement which suggested that he had some kind of remorse if for some reason Catholics may have been offended, which is not the same thing as an apology for his substantive commentary. The megamedia used to have a field day anytime President Clinton issued one of his nondenial denials; yet, it is now ok to reinterpret a nonapology of an extremist pastor into a full-fledged apology.
Using McCain's own standard that he announced in February 2000, no party or candidate should pander to right-wing extremists or "agents of intolerance":
SEN. McCAIN: Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right. (Videotape, February 28, 2000)
SEN. McCAIN: Governor Bush swung far to the right and sought out the base support of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. That’s—those aren’t the ideas that I think are good for the Republican Party. (Videotape, March 5, 2000)
In April 2006, McCain ate his own words, stating that Falwell is no longer an agent of intolerance:
Why the flip/flop? Why did McCain decide to reject his own statement about agents of intolerance that he apparently adhered to for 6 years? What changed during those years to cause McCain to decide that Falwell was no longer an agent of intolerance? McCain realized that he needed to pander to the agents of intolerance because he was prepping to run as president in 2008. In November 2006, McCain took his first step toward his 2007 announcement to run for president in 2008 when he established an exploratory committee:
Mr McCain unsuccessfully ran for president in 2000 against Mr Bush and has been laying the groundwork for a second bid for more than a year.
He took the first formal step toward a presidential run at the end of the 2006 midterms campaign in November, forming an exploratory committee and giving a speech casting himself as a "commonsense conservative" in the vein of Ronald Reagan who could lead the party back to dominance.
McCain believed that he could not win in 2008 and may have viewed Bush's win in 2000 as at least partially attributed to the "political activism" of the right-wingers who supported Bush over McCain. This "political activism" was the sleazy campaign tactics for the GOP nomination that McCain alleged Robertson and Falwell employed as "agents of intolerance" for Bush to smear McCain.
As he has for weeks, Mr. McCain today accused Mr. Robertson of slandering his national campaign co-chairman, former Senator Warren B. Rudman, in telephone calls to South Carolina voters, by calling him a ''vicious bigot'' for criticisms he had made of the religious right. Mr. McCain also suggested that leaders of the religious right might have been behind other calls and e-mail messages to South Carolina voters accusing him of fathering illegitimate children and pointing out that he and his wife, Cindy, have adopted a dark-skinned daughter from Bangladesh.
In 2000, when McCain called Falwell and Pat Robertson agents of intolerance, he indicated that he might have avoided the wrath of the "agents of intolerance" if only he would pander to them:
In his speech Mr. McCain said of them: ''They distort my pro-life positions and smear the reputations of my supporters. Why? Because I don't pander to them, because I don't ascribe to their failed philosophy that money is our message.''
McCain now apparently believes that the Bush model of the pandering right-wing express filled with a band of "agents of intolerance" will help him win the WH:
McCain's relationship with Parsley is politically significant. In 2004, Parsley's church was credited with driving Christian fundamentalist voters to the polls for George W. Bush. With Ohio expected to again be a decisive state in the presidential contest, Parsley's World Harvest Church and an affiliated entity called Reformation Ohio, which registers voters, could be important players within this battleground state. ...It's a real question: Can McCain win the presidency without Parsley?
On women, Hagee makes St. Paul, notorious for treating women like second-class citizens, look like a feminist. "Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher?" asks Hagee. "The answer is lipstick." As if that's not insulting enough, he continues: "Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? ... You can negotiate with a terrorist." Real cut-up, that John Hagee.
What about Hagee's views on African Americans, stating in 1996 that a "slave sale" should be used to help students seeking odd jobs?
Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a "slave sale" to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, "The Cluster."
The item was introduced with the sentence "Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave."
McCain has also embraced the support of Pastor Rod Parsley, who McCain called one of "the truly great leaders in America" and "moral compass" and "spiritual guide." So, which of the truly great views of this moral, spiritual guide does McCain support?
Parsley believes it is America's calling to destroy the "false religion" of Islam as part of our "historical conflict with Islam." In fact, "America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed." Does McCain agree that 9/11 was a "generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore."
Parsley compared the struggle against the "war on Christians" to the civil rights movement, defiantly shouting that "We [are] not going to the back of the bus ... My Father owns the bus line. I will sit where I please!" He promised "freedom at any cost" – "If you think 2004 was something, we have not reached critical mass! We are the largest special interest group! ... We’re building order from chaos! We’re fighting the sword with the word! We’re fighting savagery with hope!" Swelling with the force of his own metaphors, he shouted at the crowd, "I came to incite a riot! Man your battle stations! Ready your weapons! Lock and load!"
McCain wants to have it both ways. He refuses to reject these endorsements while he calls his band of pastors great spiritual leaders, but also quietly his aides maintain that "the senator's acceptance of Parsley's endorsement was not an endorsement of Parsley's views."
As McCain says, "What's wrong with sucking up to everybody?"
McCain & Megamedia, Inc. claim he's not getting a pass on the story of the extremist pastors endorsing him. Rather, the megamedia have simply coincidentally focused on the McCain meme of distinguishing relationships that each candidate had with a pastor(s).
McCain 
McCain has also embraced the support of Pastor Rod Parsley, who McCain called one of "the truly great leaders in America" and "moral compass" and "spiritual guide." So, which of the truly great views of this moral, spiritual guide does McCain support?
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