Your post did not have enough detail for me to be able to google the events.
For example, I remember the Bush-McCain South Carolina Race, but what I remember McCain being hot about was not race, but religion. Bush campaigned at Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist stronghold. The message there, for the religious right, was that Bush is born again and pro-life (which he is) and McCain is not (and he's not.)
Bush did not bring up the inter-racial dating aspect, nor did he bring up the anti-Catholic aspect and he distanced himself from it.
I was watching it very carefully because I was trying to decide between Bush and McCain, and McCain's reaction really turned me off.
I am a Republican, by default, but I am not religious right. I have posted many times on SI that I don't think the religious right are really Republicans, I think they were brought into the Big Tent to get their votes, and I think if the Democrats were to switch sides and the Republicans became pro-life and the Democrats pro-abortion, the Religious Right would become Religious Left in a heartbeat.
Abortion is the only issue they really care about. Homosexuality, to a lesser extent, but neither party puts homosexuality into a platform.
Race had nothing to do with it. |
