McCain had been mending fences with the religious right for some time, carefully distancing himself from his reputation as a "maverick" and recasting himself as a typical Republican robot with no opinions outside the right wing orthodoxy. An interview with Beliefnet offered a golden opportunity.
Q: A recent poll found that 55 percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation. What do you think?
A: I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation. But I say that in the broadest sense. The lady that holds her lamp beside the golden door doesn't say, “I only welcome Christians.” We welcome the poor, the tired, the huddled masses. But when they come here they know that they are in a nation founded on Christian principles.
All that poll really proved was that 55% of Americans had never read the Constitution -- if they had, they'd realize that it doesn't talk about Christianity at all. McCain, with his decades as a Senator, couldn't honestly make the same claim of ignorance. Clearly, he was lying to tell the religious right what they wanted to hear. John McCain had entered that self-confirming right wing echo chamber. "Yes," he might as well have said, "Whatever Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell say about the Constitution is true."...
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