McCain Campaign Declines to Meet with Billy Graham

[napi21]

McCain Campaign Declines to Meet with Billy Graham

Sunday, June 8, 2008 10:10 PM

By: Doug Wead Article Font Size



In another disturbing sign that Sen. John McCain has little interest in reaching out to his conservative base, including evangelical Christian voters, his campaign has declined an offer to meet with the Rev. Billy Graham.


For almost six decades, Graham has been America’s most influential preacher and evangelist, a man sought out by every president since Harry Truman.


Today, the 89-year-old Graham is in declining health and stays near his home in Montreat, N.C. His last public appearance, in May 2007, marked the dedication of his library. Three former American presidents -- Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton -- were on hand to honor Graham.

http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/mccain_graham_meeting/2008/06/08/102779.html?s=al&promo_code=63E9-1

Yea, I know. Nobody likes links to that site, but this particular article being posted on THEIR SITE makes it even MORE interesting!

[tularetom]

1. He isn't taking anymore chances with these bible thumpers

He's afraid of being photographed visiting Graham and then having some of the good Rev. Billy Bob's more anti Semitic utterances come back to bite him in the ass.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. What Graham Said About Jews Was Messed Up

What Graham said about Jews were messed up but it is mitigated somewhat by being egged on by the evil one-Nixon...

[Inuca]

21. That was my first thought as well :-) n/t

[speedoo]

2. McCain. What is his coalition?

Does he really have one?

[NotThisTime]

7. His coalition are the people who won't vote for Obama or who like Bush....

Wait until his record is more well known from the last seven years & the perception people have of him is adjusted to reality...

[hokies4ever]

32. The pro-Iran war crowd

[grantcart]

3. I am not a fan of Graham but for McCain to pursue other pastors who are truely fringe

and pass up on Graham is unfathomable.

This has to be the stupidest campaign decision made by any campaign to date.

This is a gimme.

One of the few decisions that after the campaign is over they will say, this actually cost us a couple of states.

As much as it makes me gag to say it I hope that Obama changes his schedule and has media shoot with Graham tomorrow.

[Independent-Voter]

4. I agree - Graham is pretty innocuous as far was TV preachers go.

[grantcart]

16. Its not that he is innocuous and his big faults are mostly in what he didn't say not what he did say

It is that there are literally tens of thousands of "middle of the road pastors" who started out with a Bible call to Billy Graham.

He personally repelled me but I was surprised when I went to a very liberal Seminary how many people this guy has touched.

For McCain to actually not meet with Graham is political suicide.


It will cost him $ 10 million in donations easy.


This should be posted wide and far.

Please rec and kick this thread all day long.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. May I Ask Why Does He Repell You?

He avoids the hot button social issues...He opposes prayer in school...I read a Time interview where he favored civil unions...

He's not a "liberal theologian" by any stretch but he's as tolerant as any main line Protestant minister and is somewhat constrainted by the Bible from which he preaches...

And as I said down thread he refused at a very early point in the civil rights era to preach to segregated crowds...

[grantcart]

38. His viewpoint and his theology repelled me.

First his view point: He was a cheerleader to Presidents who lived immoral lives and started immoral wars but he compartmentalized his religious views in such a way that he cherry picks his moral concerns. At a time that America faced great moral questions he turned away. In the middle of apartheid and taking children to schools with military escorts he remained quiet when even the most modest support would have had a huge impact. He wasn't tolerant or intolerant he was distant. Later on recordings he made with Nixon revealed anti-semitic comments that he made and I am sure he probably made the same about other groups that were not recorded.

His theology is repelling. The whole casting of the Christian experience as an individual relationship is completely unbibilical. The new testament is a testament of a community being called together not desparate individuals with personal relationships. The book of Acts documents it and the Greek ecclascia is a community being called. You can go back to second Isaiah and the suffering servant and the whole Judeo-Christian biblical understanding is that faith is primary experienced as a community and not as an individual experience. His emphasis of individual personal salvation is the perfect expression of Bonehoffer's "Cheap Grace".

It is also the perfect theology for a consumerist economy where activity is fueled by invidual activity.

It's not that its conservative or liberal that he has stripped it of its essential identity and as you say is constrained by the Bible from which he preaches . . .he doesn't preach from the bible he preaches into the bible projecting his personal views - it is the classic example of "eiso- gesis" and not "exo-gesis" (projecting into and not taking from)

He didn't condemn segregation and he didn't condemn the violence done by segregationist and he didn't integrate his ministry during the fight against segregation.

[guruoo]

30. Excellent analysis

:headbang:

[AspenRose]

5. Yep

Graham is tame compared to Hagee and Parsley. That didn't make any sense at all.

[speedoo]

28. I agree. This is political suicide by McCain.

Billy Graham has his faults and I am no fan of his. But he is a legend, not only among evangelicals, but in the entire Christian community.

[NotThisTime]

6. I agree, I don't like religion, but to NOT go see Graham is freaking stupid, I hope Obama gets

invited and GOES!

God, you accept endorsements from the likes of hagee and freaking parsley, but you don't go see Graham?? He's so mild compared to these others.... what a stupid move....

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. I Don't Have A Problem With Obama Meeting Billy Graham

He's been a friend to every pres since Kennedy...They actually got along great... He didn't have a great relationship with Truman...

As far as preachers he avoids the hot button social issues...

[napi21]

11. I think that might happen. Graham has been friendly with every

President since Truman, including Clinton. I haven't heard him speak in a lot of years, but he was fairly non-partisan when he did. I think McNut will come to regret this decision.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. Obama Should Meet With Him

Graham decided very early in the civil rights era not to preach to segregated audiences...He avoids the hot button social issues... He's not a bad guy...

[grantcart]

18. I agree with you he should meet with him tomorrow before McCain changes his mind

and while he didn't preach to segregated audiences he also never said a word about the number one moral question of the day.


Not a bad bad guy but not a good guy either, as his anti semitic statements proved.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. It Might Cost Him North Carolina

This is a great opening for Obama to disabuse folks of the notion that he is a secular liberal elitist...

[anonymous171]

26. Compared to Hagee, Graham is a fucking saint.

[cbc5g]

9. Shoud Obama meet with him and court christian voters?

I think he should paint McCain as someone afraid to meet people. Afraid to meet dictators and afraid to meet his own christian base leaders for fear of being painted too far RW.

[napi21]

14. I think Obama should accept an invitation from Graham if it's offered, but

I don't think he should go out of his way to "court" so called Christian voters. Certainly not if there's any hint of looking fake or like a ploy.

[grantcart]

19. Meet him tomorrow before he becomes too ill

[NotThisTime]

22. I don't think he should court them as in pander to them, but I do think since he is a self

proclaimed Christian, it would not be out of the ordinary for him to want some people of the Christian faith to know that.... if he can get some of their vote without pandering, hey, I'm all for it....

[NotThisTime]

24. I think if asked he should meet with Graham, he should let Christian's know his ideology, but not

pander to them... if he can get his own message out there, and get some of the Christian votes McCain is trying to get, that would be great....

[slinkerwink]

12. that is a really dumb decision

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. He Will Meet With A Nut Like Hagee But Not A MainStream Protestant Minister

[cbc5g]

23. I think it would be a mistake for Obama to not meet him now, after McCain showing weakness

[Hamlette]

25. good for him. Graham is an anti semite and should be ignored. n/t

[Alter Ego]

27. Oh that won't sit well with the evangelicals.

[PylesMalfunction]

29. How stupid can you get?!!

I greatly respect Billy Graham. That's not to say that there isn't stuff to criticize but there's a lot more stuff to respect. Now, his son that's taking over is an asshat. :(

For McSame to meet and court all these whackjob preachers and not meet with Billy Graham is disgusting. So he's either pandering because he doesn't want to be associated with the religious right (which will backfire on him - he needs those votes) or he's making a statement that while he appreciates whack-a-doodles like Hagee backing him, he doesn't have respect for more mainstream Christians. That will bite him in the ass as well.

I just got done saying to my fiance that the White House is already won. The only thing we can do at this point is screw up and lose it. I'm terrified of that happening. :(

[BlooInBloo]

31. Alternate title: McCain chops of hunk of his own base.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

33. Maybe McSame Is Going For The Secular Humanist Vote

:sarcasm:

[FredScuttle]

34. I think it's a good idea for McSame to stay away from Billy Graham

and his whole "Superstar" coalition...

[dana_b]

35. here is one of the most interesting points in the article:

"The theory behind the McCain campaign’s strategy to ignore evangelicals is that they have nowhere else to go, that Obama is too liberal, and they’ll vote against him come November.


But McCain’s team is missing the fact that the vacuum created by the GOP’s divorce from them is being filled by the Democrats.


Both Clinton and Obama have been quietly courting evangelicals, the former in private meetings last year and the later with open, religious language.


Aside from Carter’s winning outreach to born again voters in 1976, this is a new phenomenon among Democrat candidates. New polling shows younger evangelicals have different views about the poor, the environment and societal attitudes toward gays. Public relations expert and evangelical leader Mark DeMoss suggests that Obama could win fully 40 percent of the evangelical vote this November. By my calculations that figure is low."


:wow: Now that would be interesting!

[mamalone]

40. This is what I've been saying all along!!

And I get pooh-poohed every time:( I sincerely think that Obama could get a huge number of evangelicals... he is the type of person that appeals to them. Plus they despise McCain. The only problem- and it is a big one- is the abortion issue. McCain is a solid pro-lifer and they may be willing to hold their nose on everything else and vote for him based on this alone. If Obama could figure out a way to neutralize some of the power of the abortion issue he could possibly get half of these voters or even a majority of them. Seriously!

[ms liberty]

36. So he'll hug up on Hagee and Parsley, but he won't even meet with Billy Graham?

Billy Graham is universally respected by christians of all stripes - liberal to fundamentalist - especially here in the south. To be so disrespectful of him, particularly when he's older than dirt and not in good health, is not a wise decision for McSame to have made...but for us this is a good thing! If Obama gets the chance to meet with the Rev. Graham, then he definitely should go and speak with him. He's far more moderate than a lot of people realize, although his son Franklin, who has taken over the ministry, is a good bit farther to the right. Meeting with him, or even accepting his endorsement if he offered it (although I'm thinking he never has actually publicly endorsed a candidate before) would be acceptable to me. He has not tried to pressure politicans to legislate his religious beliefs in the same way that we've seen from Falwell, Robertson, Dobson, et cetera. He's stuck to the business of the church, not the state.
I say this as someone who's southern and raised Baptist, although I don't participate regularly in any organized religion. I'm extremely critical of what passes for an accepted religion in our society, and 99.99% of these televangelists are nothing but snake oil salesmen; but I have respect for the Rev. Graham, who is the real deal.

[genna]

37. Jon Stewart repeating Graham's racist rants against Jews should mean something

I know Graham apologized.

The point is he meant what he said. The paraphrase: The Jews are ruining this country is HORRIBLE.

I just hope I don't see Obama cozying up to him. I think religion has its place in America and in politics, but let's not stop with Parsons and Hagee...some expressions of resentment against an entire group of people WITHOUT MERIT should be deplored as the intolerant strand of religion.

[papapi]

39. Thought McShame would want to tap into Graham's Swiss bank accounts.

[symbolman]

41. Obama can't take any chances with the Jewish voters at least right now..

the Right wingers are trying to get the Jewish people pissed at Obama and utilize the archtypical "blacks hate Jews who hate blacks" stereotype (which at this point in history may be as dead as cross race dating is, not much of an issue to the young or progressives of any age..) they've even been floating the "Clinton was thinking of it" test balloon (I personally DO think its mostly a right wing invention, even Clinton aint that dumb)..

So Obama needs to not get tied into Grahams statement too closely..

There's also the matter of Obama seemingly being a "man without a church" at this point, so for him to cozy up to Evangelicals right now could piss off some Catholics, who may already be angry about his Pro-life stance, and having picked up a slip shod Pastor along the way..

Treacherous waters lay ahead, matey.. It will be interesting to see how he navigates, especially now that the whole Nation needs to be charmed..

Beyond this point, there be Monsters.. :)

[A-Schwarzenegger]

42. Makes no sense, hard to believe.

[dems_rightnow]

43. Crap site

And like most everything it puts out, this appears to be crap, too. They're sorta retracting it.

Newsmax= Not a good source