Seems the Republicans are losing on the "character" and "values" issues. The pastor and spiritual advisor to the Bush family, the very man who presided at Jenna Bush's wedding recently, has harshly criticized Republican John McCain for his lack of values and poor character and has endorsed Barack Obama.

Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of the Windsor Village United Methodist Church gave the official benedictions at Bush's inauguration in 2001 and 2005. Although a controversial figure for his first inaugural benediction in 2001 that explicitly excluded non-Christians, and for his inspiration of Bush's "faith based initiatives," there is no question that he is in touch with what Republicans mean when they discuss values and character.

Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell just publicly denounced John McCain's morals and has endorsed Barack Obama.

This seems to have been precipitated by the furor about John Edwards' affair, leading Caldwell to point out John McCain's own infidelities. It was also precipitated by John McCain's offering up of his wife to a topless and rather obscene (keyword: banana) pagent at the Sturgis bike rally last week. I guess John McCain's behavior is not pleasing Christians interested in true values rather than mere words.

This is not my issue. Conservative Christian morals are not necessarily my morals. But if John McCain is losing even George Bush's own pastor to Barack Obama, well, seems he is in really bad shape.

Oh, and the response of the McCain team? Attack the pastor:

"These people are Obama campaign surrogates. These kinds of personal attacks are disgraceful. This absolutely exposes the hypocrisy of Obama's claim to represent a 'new kind of politics.'"

So, McCain's own people are saying that George Bush's pastor is an Obama surrogate. Well, he said it, not us! Seems a pretty solid condemnation of McCain on the values thing. I guess the Republican response if Colin Powell really is going to endorse Obama (a somewhat far fetched but persistent rumor going around) will be to attack Bush's former Secretary of State.

This is what attracted me to Obama in the first place: his appeal to such a wide range of Americans. It was a Green Party friend who first advocated Obama to me. Now George Bush's own pastor and possibly (I doubt it, but we will see) Bush's own Secretary of State are endorsing Obama. This is one of the widest coalitions of American voters I have ever seen coming together behind Obama. That is what unity is and America can use some unity after 8 years of divisive Bush misrule.