You're campaigning to be President of the United States. Your campaign tells you that a Christian minister who is supporting you once called Islam as a "conspiracy of spiritual evil," and regularly makes similar disparaging remarks about that religion.
You know that, if elected President, Muslims around the world will remember how you handled this situation. What do you do?
(A) Drop him faster than a greased bowling ball.
(B) In preparation for the inevitable press conference, craft a statement that rejects the minister's words without denouncing the minister personally. (Kinda like, "Hate the sin, love the sinner.")
(C) Describe the minister as "one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide."
Sigh. Sadly, McCain answered C. After eight years of not-even-half-baked efforts at public diplomacy with the Islamic world, McCain isn't exactly signaling that he'll do a substantially better job.
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