Put this one down in the annals of the strange shift on religion in the 2008 election: while religious right activists argue over whether John McCain did or did not rebuff overtures to meet with evangelical icon the Rev. Billy Graham and his son Franklin, Barack Obama was meeting in Chicago with evangelical leaders, where he and Franklin reportedly exchanged a very pleasant hug.
A hug does not an endorsement or even a vote make, but surely this must be driving the religious right quite mad. The idea that Franklin hugged Obama before he even met with McCain! So must the fact that T.D. Jakes, the African-American televangelist and megachurch pastor some have called the next Billy Graham would be one of the early conservative evangelical leaders praising Obama.
As I reported in The FundamentaList, a spat erupted over whether McCain did or did not rebuff an effort to set up a meeting between the candidate and the elder Graham. Doug Wead, who served as an advisor to both Bushes, wrote in Newsmax that the McCain camp did rebuff such efforts, while Graham's spokesperson insisted the pastor who tried to broker the meeting, Brian Jacobs, was not authorized to do so. Franklin Graham later said the McCain campaign left a message on his answering machine, but that was the extent of the contact. (An unreturned message versus a hug: what could it mean?)
Now comes Gary Bauer, the former Reagan administration official, presidential candidate, religious right activist, and a McCain supporter, tells Wead (without naming him) that he's wrong, and to be quiet. Wead wrote to me this morning, insisting that McCain's failure to follow up on the one phone call to Franklin, coupled with his rejection of Jacobs' efforts, all add up to an a real story about McCain's disinterest toward the Grahams that will alarm prospective evangelical supporters of McCain.
Will activists listen to Wead, or to Bauer's not-so-subtle suggestion that Wead sit down, shut up, and stop doing the Democrats' work?
--Sarah Posner
