McCain was in California on Thursday on a campaign trip. He participated in a business roundtable with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and vowed he would "compete and win" in the Golden State. At the rally later, he drew laughter when he mocked Obama, saying that "for a young man with very little experience, he's done very well."
In the sermon that led to the break with McCain, Hagee was giving a theological interpretation of the developments that led to Jews founding the state of Israel 60 years ago. Hagee cited Jeremiah 16:15 and referred to God sending "a hunter."
"A hunter is someone with a gun, and he forces you," Hagee said. "Hitler was a hunter. . . . How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said, 'My top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.' "
On Thursday, Hagee released a statement saying he was "tired of these baseless attacks" and was withdrawing his endorsement. Hagee, who heads a group called Christians United for Israel, said critics were "grossly misrepresenting my position on issues most near and dear to my heart."
Hagee infuriated many Catholics with past remarks referring to the Catholic Church as a "false cult system" and the "great whore." Hagee also suggested Hurricane Katrina was God's answer to a "level of sin" that God found offensive and linked the devastating storm to a gay parade scheduled about the same time.
McCain dismissed the remarks as "nonsense" when he visited New Orleans.
However, he had said he was pleased when Hagee apologized to the Catholic League in a letter last week, and the group said it accepted the apology.
J.J. Goldberg, editorial director of the weekly Jewish newspaper Forward, said McCain might have concluded that the controversial endorsements were starting to cost him more votes than they were bringing in -- and could damage the Republican's attempts to make inroads among Jewish voters.
A Gallup Poll Daily survey released May 7 found that, in a head-to-head contest, Obama would edge McCain 61% to 32% among Jewish voters. Still, for a Republican to win nearly 1 in 3 Jewish votes would be a good showing, given the historically strong loyalties Jews have had to the Democratic Party.
McCain, Goldberg said, is likely to fare best among conservative Jews who are worried about Obama's approach to foreign policy. "The people that he needs, or that he's counting on from the Jewish community -- it's only a fragment -- are precisely the people who are the most likely to jump out of their skins when they hear 'Hitler,' " he said.
