Arizona Senator John McCain has made a new comment which suggests his “Straight Talk Express” is quickly derailing — and despite the “No Surrender” slogan he’s likely on borrowed time as a serious U.S. Republican Presidential candidate.

There are differences between carefully adjusting your comments to please particular constituencies, but McCain is a unique politico who finds himself with an impressive life’s story, a political history of being a “star” among independent and young voters in 2000 — and a recent history of losing support as he ties to woo those who opposed him but winds up losing the voters he’s wooing AND the voters that previously supported him. His latest will appeal to a narrow segment of the right and won’t help him gain votes:

GOP presidential candidate John McCain says America is better off with a Christian President and he doesn’t want a Muslim in the Oval Office.

“I admire the Islam. There’s a lot of good principles in it,” he said. “But I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith.”

A smart politico doesn’t open himself up to being blasted. But on the basis of this:

–Did this mean that his friend Senator Joe Lieberman could not be President if he sought it? The last time we looked, Mr. Lieberman was not Christian, or Muslim.

–The United States also has a vibrant Indian American community with a new generation that is quite Americanized. Does this mean a Hindu born in the United States could not serve either?

Or is it JUST Islam? Or someone who Mr. McCain didn’t like. MORE:

In a wide-ranging interview about religion and faith with the Web site Beliefnet, McCain said he wouldn’t “rule out under any circumstance” someone who wasn’t Christian, but said, “I just feel that that’s an important part of our qualifications to lead.”

Mr. McCain: WHERE in the constitution — which presumably sets the rules of the game — does it say this is a “qualification?” AND:

A Mormon such as rival candidate Mitt Romney, he said, would be okay.

“The Mormon religion is a religion that I don’t share, but I respect.

“More importantly, I’ve known so many people of the Mormon faith who have been so magnificent,” he said.

McCain later clarified his remarks, saying, “I would vote for a Muslim if he or she was the candidate best able to lead the country and to defend our political values.”

In other words, McCain politically stepped in it.

But were his original statements what he meant? Or was his clarification?

No matter what voters decide, the fact is that with these comments Senator John McCain has likely opened himself up to charges that he is bigoted and/or that his comments show a kind of political negligence that could be dangerous for a political party that will have to gamble on a candidate with hours of staff time, volunteer time and millions of dollars. Can a party risk using someone to head its ticket who so willingly shoves his foot in his mouth?

Was this an attempt to win over Jewish voters? If so, it would fail miserably. There are two reasons:

(1) Jewish voters are not really monolithic.

(2) It would likely fail because some Jewish voters will stop for about 1/980776 of a second and realize: “Hey! We’re not Christian!” And independent voters like to keep their options open: they’d look at a Muslim who runs for President and more likely than not vote against or for the candidate depending on whether it was a good or lousy candidate.

McCain continues to be a bittersweet story of a might-have-been candidate. A charismatic guy who is likeable on television, has actually shown talent as a performer (no joke) on Saturday Night Live, is often truly independent, and showed enormous courage and character throughout his life.

It has seemed like his campaign was not raising enough money and collapsing, but recent stories suggested he was picking up strength in New Hampshire.

But this statement suggests more than ever that he has perhaps missed his moment in history and may be in the middle of running in one Presidential campaign too many.

Here are a few other reactions to this story.

–Gun Toting Liberal:

I’m not outraged, and when I first read that statement, I admit - I even kind of grinned one of those “oh no he DIDN’T” sort of grins. The grin soon wore off when I realised this bigot and many other bigots with the exact same point of view are currently holding high, important offices at all levels of all governments in our country today — but the Senate — The U.S. SENATE?

This just helps make a fantastic argument for term limits in Congress as far as I am concerned.

–The Right’s Field:

Senator John McCain is a shell of his former self. There was once a time when I greatly admired and respected McCain as a lawmaker, but his presidential ambitions have tarnished that image of him.

….After a couple weeks of press blasting the GOP as anti-black, anti-Latino and anti-gay for passing on forums/debates targeted towards those constituencies, I don’t think McCain wanted to add the GOP’s disdain for Muslims to the list, too.

–Atrios:

I don’t care if John McCain won’t vote for a Muslim for president. We’re at this absurd spot in our political discourse where “faith” somehow matters but the specifics of that faith do not. And even this obscures the fact that what this really means is Christian faith matters.

If religious beliefs matter, then surely it’s the substance of those beliefs which matter and not simply some meaningless nod to “the importance of faith.”

–Jihad Watch:

This nation was indeed founded on principles that are derived from the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Daily News, predictably, is treating McCain’s remarks as if he were saying that this is a Christian country in some kind of sectarian or exclusionary sense. I hold no brief for McCain, but I doubt that’s what he meant. He might have expressed himself more clearly, explaining that the views of the dignity of all people and their equality of rights before the law were Judeo-Christian principles that traditional Islam, with its devaluation of the life of unbelievers, denial of the freedom of conscience, and more, does not share.

–The always original The Heretik (MAKE SURE you click on the link since he always has incredible graphics) writes, in part:

The stupid will not let up until McCain stops talking. The stupid is ageless, its ignorance endless and infinite.