Perhaps the moral of the story is that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would be far better off avoiding religion as a campaign issue. It’s been dogging him for years, and his fall from grace continues.
In 2000, the Arizona senator gambled that denouncing religious right leaders like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson would pay off, and went to Virginia to condemn the TV preachers as “agents of intolerance.” The gamble failed; the GOP base was offended; and McCain’s campaign never recovered.
More recently, McCain, a life-long Episcopalian, raised eyebrows by telling a reporter, unprompted, “By the way, I’m not Episcopalian. I’m Baptist.” In context, it looked as if McCain may have claimed a new affiliation simply in the hopes it would give his campaign a boost.
The senator ran into additional religious trouble in a BeliefNet interview in which he said, “I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation.” This despite the fact that the Constitution, which McCain has presumably read, does the exact opposite.
And as if that weren’t enough, in the same interview, McCain suggested he wouldn’t want a Muslim president.
GOP presidential candidate John McCain says America is better off with a Christian President and he doesn’t want a Muslim in the Oval Office.
“I admire the Islam. There’s a lot of good principles in it,” he said. “But I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith.”
Oh my.
Looking at the transcript, it appears McCain realized later that he’d made a mistake.
Has the candidates’ personal faith become too big an issue in the presidential race?
Questions about that are very legitimate…. And it’s also appropriate for me at certain points in the conversation to say, look, that’s sort of a private matter between me and my Creator…. But I think the number one issue people should make [in the] selection of the President of the United States is, ‘Will this person carry on in the Judeo Christian principled tradition that has made this nation the greatest experiment in the history of mankind?'”
It doesn’t seem like a Muslim candidate would do very well, according to that standard.
I admire the Islam. There’s a lot of good principles in it. I think one of the great tragedies of the 21st century is that these forces of evil have perverted what’s basically an honorable religion. But, no, I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles…. personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith. But that doesn’t mean that I’m sure that someone who is Muslim would not make a good president. I don’t say that we would rule out under any circumstances someone of a different faith. I just would–I just feel that that’s an important part of our qualifications to lead.*
Notice the asterisk? At the bottom of the transcript, BeliefNet noted, “McCain contacted Beliefnet after the interview to clarify his remarks: ‘I would vote for a Muslim if he or she was the candidate best able to lead the country and defend our political values.'”
In other words, McCain was for discrimination before he was against it.
Former Bush White House aide David Kuo, now a BeliefNet contributor, said McCain was “pandering to what he thinks the Christian conservative community wants to hear” and predicted he “will have a lot of explaining to do about this interview.”