Obama‘s Wright More Trouble than McCain’s Hagee

March 15, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Race, Religion, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

As you should know by now, 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, late last week, news began to surface that one of John McCain’s religious supporters, John Hagee, has made many harsh anti-Catholic statements in the past.

As reports of Wright’s disgusting, hate filled garbage has made the news earlier last week, many on the extreme left have pointed to the low profile that the McCain story has had as proof that the media is unfair, intimating that the media might even be on McCain’s side.

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, for the left to imagine that the situations in which McCain and Obama find themselves are exactly the same shows that leftists who think this are either uninformed or disingenuous. The situations are not in any way comparable.

Before you even attempt to dismiss this as just another fawning excusing of the GOP candidate by a Republican apologist, I will inform you that I will not vote for John McCain under any circumstances. So, you cannot chalk this up to mere electoral partisanship.

So, that said, there are major differences between McCain’s endorsement by Hagee and Obama’s endorsement by and 20 year long relationship Rev. Wright.

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 kids never knew Hagee when they were small.
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 the hatemonger Wright and Barack Obama and McCain and Hagee. It shows that Obama had many decades of intimacy with Rev. Wright proving that Wright’s hate speech could not possibly have bothered Barack very much at all, much less have come as any surprise. While John McCain had only just met John Hagee proving that his history of anti-Catholic statements is not something that McCain could have had long and intimate contact with.

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

But there is absolutely no way to equate McCain’s acceptance of the anti-Catholic Hagee’s support with that of Obama’s acceptance of the racist Wright’s. Obama has no excuse to have only suddenly distanced himself form this hate filled, ranter whom he has called his “spiritual mentor.” For decades Obama has known of, and sat in a congregation listening to, the wild-eyed rants by this man. Barack has accepted him as part of his family closely associated with his wife and children. Barack Hussein Obama has been very close with Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. for 20 some years.

On the other hand, John McCain has only just met John Hagee.

You just cannot equate the two.

So, no, American left. There is no favoritism, no bias to the right among the U.S. media for covering Obama’s race baiting pastor more than they have covered McCain’s anti-Catholic ranter. And it is simply because Hagee means but an endorsement of a campaign for McCain whereas Wright means an endorsement of an entire philosophy against the U.S.A. for Obama.

Obama has had 20 years to repudiate Rev. Wright’s hatred and has only just now spoken up. It is impossible to believe that Obama only just now realized the hate that Wright preaches and we can only assume that Obama has agreed with Wright all this time and is only distancing himself from Wright now as a political expediency.

And if the recent comments about her hatred of America by Obama’s wife Michelle is any indication, the entire Obama family holds the very same racist, anti-American thoughts as Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

So, the final word about any so-called bias to the right in this instance has to be made against the idea. If the media reported McCain’s story less it is naturally because the Obama story is by far the more explosive and consequential story.

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston