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McCain: 'Tolerance' vs. Pandering

By Robert Stacy McCain on 7.14.08 @ 6:13PM

Celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton (a/k/a Mario Lavandeira, who is openly gay) makes an excursion into politics with this "Quote of the Day" from John McCain:

"I think that we've proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don't believe in gay adoption."

That's from a New York Times interview with the Republican. Keli Goff at HuffPo says:

Younger voters in particular, who have been raised in a world of Will & Grace and Ellen have become increasingly intolerant of intolerance.

Is Goff trying to suggest that, far from being mere light-hearted entertainment, these programs are effective propaganda for the gay agenda? Just a few years ago, as I recall, scorn and ridicule were sure to rain down on any conservative who dared suggest there was even such a thing as a "gay agenda," much less accused Hollywood of promoting it. Now that the triumph of "tolerance" is a fait accompli, I guess liberals don't mind discussing their sitcoms-as-subversion strategy.

Goff says reactions to McCain's quote "highlight a fundamental problem for John McCain as he tries to formulate a winning strategy for November: How to win an election decided by voters in the middle, while continuing to pander to voters on the right."

Two questions:

• Is support for gay adoption a sine qua non in reaching "voters in the middle"? In Montana (the state where Obama spent his Fourth of July holiday), voters in 2004 approved by a 63-37 margin a ballot measure banning gay adoption. This suggests that the Will & Grace agenda has not progressed as rapidly as Goff might believe.
• Does anyone "on the right" feel that John McCain's been pandering to them lately?

He's already made his pitch to La Raza and gone over the fence on global warming, so it's hard to see what's stopping Maverick from switching sides on gay adoption. But liberals never condemn support for their pet causes as "pandering."

topics:
John McCain, Global Warming, Hollywood