The unfortunate truth is that if he takes this advise, he will fair much better. Remember back in 2004, when moral issues (or whatever the exact spinword was) were widley touted as a major blow against the democrats?

Is he going to take the campaign in this direction? I don't know. Will he almost guarantee the vast majority of the evangelical vote (20million+) if he does? Yes.

It is sad that thinly veiled bigotry, against ones fellow citizens no less, can ebb and flow our nations political situation.

with the current way of US politics, there are 2 solutions for any problem.

You don't have many choices if it is about the whole race/sex/gender stuff it seems so McCain just does the opposite to make it more extreme.

I hope he loses a lot of voters, though I don't like either of them, McCain would make Cheney look like a nice guy...

Gay bashing is a tried and true tactic for Republicans. Let's go down the list:

• Homosexuality is a sin.
  
• Gays and lesbians choose to be homosexual.
  
• Homosexuals are a threat to heterosexual family values.
  
• Gay marriage make a mockery of traditional marriage.
  
• Gay men who adopt children are pedophiles.
  
• Gays will raise adopted children to be gay.
  

Unfortunately this type of twisted logic strikes a chord within the Evangelical community. It plays to their most base fear that homosexuality is a sin, and therefore must be condemned at any and all costs. It's an effective hatchet job.

Animal

Wedge issues take away from real issues. And sadly, look at the state of the union today after use of wedge issues.

Wedge issues might cleave voters but they have also cleaved this nation.

The introduction of wedge issues by the Republican party was a stop-at-nothing-to-win campaign. The ends justify the means.

Using wedge issues to boost political performance is like illegally using nitrous oxide for NASCAR. At least NASCAR had the ethics to stop cheating.

Fred Barnes is both astute and honest.

I don't know how much McCain is going to push the homosexuality issue, but I think that if he lets it be known that he supports "Don't ask; don't tell" and believes that marriage is a legal arrangement between one man and one woman, he will appeal strongly to most social conservatives, which also includes plenty of Democrats.

Personally, I don't think that McCain and Fred Barnes have any sort of professional relationship whatsoever, so I don't think McCain will do anything just because Barnes thinks it's the best thing to do.

That's one thing about McCain. He's been around long enough to know where he stands and doesn't have to listen to pundits when he makes decisions, which might sometimes include changing his position on some issues, plus he has his own advisers.

Moreover, the homosexual community makes up roughly 10% of the US population at best, some of whom are conservatives, so for McCain to support the wishes of the majority relative to these two issues wouldn't be a bad choice.



[edit on 2008/7/6 by GradyPhilpott]