So Help Me Jesus

Sorry, beg your pardon, but how the FUCK is this not a push poll?

Pastor Jeremiah Wright, who has become part of the national political dialogue in recent days, is viewed favorably by 8% of voters nationwide. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 58% have an unfavorable view of the Pastor whose controversial comments have created new challenges for Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign.

Wright was Obama’s Pastor until he retired last month, but Obama has repudiated the preacher’s comments.

Seventy-three percent (73%) of voters say that Wright’s comments are racially divisive. That opinion is held by 77% of White voters and 58% of African-American voters. In addressing the issue, Obama warned against injecting race into the campaign.

Obama didn't do that, in this instance. Assholes at NewsMax did, and the liberally biased MSM ate it up. Wright didn't magically "become part of the national dialogue." It's an irrelevance that became "important" because wingnuts are malicious and the SCLM loves bullshit.

  And this is fucking stupid. I especially enjoyed this:

If John McCain were an evangelical Christian and a longstanding member of Jerry Falwell’s congregation, and if he had written a memoir describing, say, how he was "born again”" under Falwell's influence, he would not be the Republican nominee today. With a great deal of luck, he might – might – have done as well in the primaries as Mike Huckabee did, and of course you may recall that Huck had all kinds of difficulties winning non-evangelical votes, faring particularly poorly among Catholics.

John Hagee hates The Papes, and McCain blew him on stage and asked for seconds.

Wingnut bigotry is pandered to. Period.

Comments

[SteveB]

I don't get what you mean by "push poll." They were trying to change voters minds by asking the question? What would be the point of shifting a thousand or so people over to McCain or Clinton eight months before the election?

Or do you mean that the question was asked in a biased form? I suppose that's possible: "What do you think of Jeremiah Wright, the controversial pastor who Barack Obama was forced to disavow this week?" But I couldn't find the actual question in the story. Did you?

[FearItself]

The Russ Douthat quote raises an interesting question that is vitally important to our nation's future: What church does John McCain attend, and how often does he go? Just wondering....

[Bob]

What Rev. Wright said was so extreme as to automatically disqualify anyone who has attended his church from the presidency. No counterpart exists on the right.
Well, unless you count Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson (who ran for the Republican nomination), James Dobson, Ted Haggard (an advisor to Pres. Bush until that unfortunate crystal meth/gay prostitute story broke), Bob Jones, Jr., Ralph Reed, Tim LeHaye and assorted other homophobic, misogynistic, corrupt, in the pocket of big business and being the polar opposite of the man who said Inasmuch as you do unto one of the least of these, you do unto me" (Matthew 25:40) religious leaders who are openly courted by Republicans. But still, it’s entirely different.

[Ken Houghton]

McCain is a loyal member of The Church of the Poisoned Mind, which caters to adulterers and liars.

He attends services as frequently as George W. Bush does—which is to say, significantly less frequently than Bill and Hillary Clinton did during their eight years in office.

[Bitter Scribe]

I don't want to know any of this. I don't want to know who Obama's pastor is. I don't care how often McCain goes to church. None of it has got ANYTHING to do with ANYTHING.

This country is in the grip of the worst post-Cold-War crises it's ever faced. Why are we all frying our brains over this utterly irrelevant bullshit?

[Batocchio]

Russ Douthat pronouncing something "horseshit" and then spouting something that's batshit crazy made for some entertaining reading. Did he miss the Bush campaign, and all the evangelical rending of garments earlier in the primary season? Seriously, where the hell has he been?

[SteveB]

And could we please stop comparing Rev. Wright to Jerry Falwell? Wright said that 9/11 was a consequence of US foreign policy. Falwell said it happened because God was angry that we'd been too nice to gay folks. Do I really have to explain the difference?