QFT

I will even consider there is a difference between sitting in a pew for 20 years and actively seeking an endorsement of a religious figure (though I think this difference is overstated by the right).

Endorsement or support of anyone should never translate as 100 percent agreement–somewhere along the way, people have forgotten that.

My own pastor has said things that I find unacceptable and I can guarantee that I believe things that he would look down on.

I can come up with valid reasons for rejecting a candidate–guilt by association is not one of them.

For the same reason that all politicians take dodgy endorsements: They expect that the people who listen to the particular endorser will treat it as an important plus, while the people who don’t listen to him will never hear about it. It’s a fundamental part of pre-blogosphere campaigning.

What’s happening now is that public scrutiny is getting into the endorsement racket and the politicians haven’t yet changed their game in response. We can expect more and more of these for the foreseeable future until politicians get wise and start vetting endorsers a bit.

Off topic P.S.: Is it possible you guys could cut down on the widgets and doodads? I understand wanting to monetize this place, but you’ve created a slow loading monster with wonky page refreshes and a bunch of useless stuff that gets in the way of the good stuff.