Crazy Base World

Some time ago John McCain, a frequent guest on The Daily Show, was asked by Jon Stewart, "You're not going into the crazy base world are you?" McCain laughed and replied, "I'm afraid so."

McCain is one of The Daily Show's more popular guests and in addition to his candor is known for sometimes playing along with Stewart's jests, something most politicians don't do. I thought this was one of those times.

There was a time, a few years ago, if you had told me John McCain would be the Republican nominee for president in 2008 I would tell you that there was a good chance of me breaking ranks to vote for him. No more. Now it seems that McCain's "Straight Talk Express" is headed directly into the Crazy Base World, and has no intentions on turning back.

A couple weeks ago McCain declared that, despite his lifelong membership in the Episcopal Church, he was actually Baptist, despite never having been baptized as such. Today, McCain said that he would prefer a Christian president over one of a different faith, and called being Christian "an important part of our qualifications to lead."

It's bad enough that Mr. McCain - previously known as a maverick in his party - is pandering to the Bible Belt base of the GOP by suddenly having a religious conversion to the denomination that just happens to dominate the South, but now he seems to be insinuating that there is a religious test for the presidency.

Last time I looked at the U.S. Constitution, there were indeed qualifications for being president. Religious preference, however, was not one of them. For McCain to suggest such is simply incredulous.

The main issue here is that I don't think McCain actually believes it. Coming from Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee, this statement, while still false, would make more sense because those men have shown themselves to be products of an environment which glorified Christian values as synonymous with American values.

For McCain, who has previously called right-wing conservatives such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Fallwell "instruments of hate," it's nothing more than political pandering. And that's a John McCain I would never vote for.