Monday, June 9, 2008

Political Notes: Mitchell FINALLY apologizes for "redneck" comment; McCain hopes to meet with Billy Graham

Some political notes on this sultry Monday afternoon in the Eastern US:

NBC's Andrea Mitchell finally apologized today for her derogatory remarks about Appalachia. The remarks were made as part of MSNBC's coverage of Barack Obama's recent visit to Bristol, Virginia. TVNewser has the video apology here. Yesterday, Bristol Herald-Courier columnist J. Todd Foster said:

"The last bastion of acceptable, politically incorrect stereotyping is making fun of Southerners...[a]nd we're...tired of it." As a fellow Appalachian and, more importantly, a Christian, so am I. Christ would not use stereotypes. While I accept Mitchell's apology, the liberal left should not be in the business of stereotyping God-fearing, taxpaying rural people.

In other political news, John McCain's campaign clarified earlier reports stating that he refused a meeting with Billy Graham. McCain's deputy campaign manager tells NewsMax that plans are indeed in the works for a meeting with Rev. Graham. NewsMax earlier reprinted a letter from the campaign that seemed to indicate that McCain would not meet with Rev. Graham at all, increasing fears among conservative Christians that McCain would ignore them. It appears now that this is not the case.

Comments???

UPDATE at 5:34pm: NewsMax is reporting that a Billy Graham spokesman issued a statement saying that Graham "was unaware of any communication between the McCain campaign and his office or his son's [office]." Developing...

UPDATE at 6:30pm ET: CBN's Brody File blog received this statement from a Franklin Graham spokesman:

"The offer to meet with Mr. Graham was extended by someone who is not in an official capacity to arrange such a meeting, nor is he affiliated with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. (Emphasis mine)

"So far, Billy Graham's office has not been directly contacted about meeting with Sen. McCain.

"Franklin Graham did receive a message from one of Sen. McCain's staffers several months ago saying that they were reaching out to evangelical leaders and that if Franklin Graham would like to meet with McCain that would be welcomed. This was during the primaries and Franklin did not have any follow up to that call.

"But Franklin said he would now be willing to meet with Sen. McCain or Sen. Obama."

Still developing...

No comments:

Post a Comment