Wright vs Hagee Problems
by Warner Huston
Issue 105 - April 9, 2008

Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has a Wright problem. That would be a Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. problem. It turns out that Barack Obama’s “spiritual mentor” has a long, long history of hatred against whites and the history of the U.S.A. But then news began to surface that one of John McCain’s religious supporters, John Hagee, has made many harsh anti-Catholic statements .

It is true that John Hagee has made bigoted statements against the Catholic Church. It is also utterly true that Jeremiah Wright has made racist, hateful statements against all whites and the history of this country.

But to imagine that the situations in which McCain and Obama find themselves are the same is disingenuous. The situations are not in any way comparable.

This is not another fawning excusing of a GOP candidate by a Republican apologist. I will inform you that I will not vote for John McCain under any circumstances. In fact, there are major differences between McCain’s endorsement by Hagee and Obama’s endorsement by a person with whom he had a 20 year long relationship.

The following points mark a stark difference between McCain/Hagee and Obama/Wright:

• In his book the Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama called Rev. Wright his “spiritual mentor.” McCain has not made any such statement of Hagee.
• Obama had his children baptized by Rev. Wright. McCain’s children never knew Hagee when they were young.
• Rev. Wright performed Obama’s marriage ceremony. McCain had never even met Hagee until he became the frontrunner for the GOP nomination.
• Obama chose Rev. Wright’s church and attended it for 20 years. McCain has never attended Hagee’s church.

These points are extremely important and mark a completely different relationship between Wright and Obama and McCain and Hagee. It shows that Barack Obama had many decades of intimacy with Rev. Wright proving that Wright’s anti-white speech could not possibly have bothered Sen. Obama very much if at all, much less have come as any surprise. Sen. McCain had only just met John Hagee proving that his anti-Catholic statements is not something that McCain could have had long or intimate contact with.

Of course, both candidates have disavowed their supporter’s statements. Obama made his statement via the Huffington Post and McCain via the media with a statement to the Associated Press.

Barak Obama had 20 years to repudiate Rev. Wright’s hate-filled speech and has only just now spoken up. It is impossible to believe that Obama only just now realized what Wright preaches and so it is reasonable to assume that Mr. Obama is only distancing himself from Wright now for political expediency.

There is no favoritism, no bias to the right among the U.S. media for covering Sen. Obama’s pastor more than they have covered Sen. McCain’s supporter, as some have claimed. The greater coverage of Wright is simply because Hagee’s is but a campaign endorsement whereas Wright’s is a 20-year intimate relationship, which has likely implications for Obama’s whole outlook on life. And if the recent comments by Obama’s wife Michelle are any indication, this may have implications for the outlook on life of the entire Obama family.

Warner Todd Huston is a Staff Writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc. (www.thenma.org).