McCain aces Rick Warren interview

Evangelicals, and the Christian Right in general, are quite justifiably uncomfortable with John McCain.

From years gone by, right up the present moment, has has blasted them, at one time or another, from the late Jerry Falwell to Pat Robertson to Bob Jones University to John Hagee to Focus on the Family. The main thing McCain has had going for him is that on most of the issues they care most about, Barack Obama was even worse.

So it came last night, with Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church in California and author of The Purpose Drive Life, that McCain and Obama were each separately interviewed for an hour on spiritual and moral issues. The overall impression was that McCain was very direct and to the point, dodging no questions, while Obama talked much longer and beat around the bush.

Obama comes out of a very liberal Christian background at best. His 20-year pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is into black liberation theology and is a close friend of Muslims like Louis Farakhan and Libyan dictator Moamar Quaddafi. Naturally Obama would be quite uncomfortable with the evangelical Warren and obviously had his guard up.

McCain told stories from his personal experiences, such as his time in the North Vietnamese prison and his first marriage, that were touching and related very well to the audience. Obama was much more theoretical and distant, mainly trying to avoid a fatal misstep.

To the extent that McCain shored up his base with the Christian Right, he was the victor. Obama did avoid a fatal misstep, particularly in the eyes of the liberal media.