Granted, this Parsley guy isn't someone I'd hang out with, and I'm not defending him or McCain's relationship with him, I'll just make some observations.

First, I don't see any of this being a problem for McCain. The reason being, in a race between McCain and Obama, no one who wants to see Obama win, and that includes the majority of the "mainstream media" dares bring up pastors again. Sure, this Parsley guy has some issues, but nothing comparable to those of Wright. If the race were defined by who was closest to the craziest minister, Obama would be in deep shit, so its not a hill Obama supporters want to die on.

Second, for the reason above, McCain is fortunate that Wright exists. If it weren't for Wright, all you'd be seeing and hearing on the news is this Parsley guy. And, of course, it would be damaging for McCain, but no where near the damage Wright has and will do to Obama. The fact is, most Americans don't care much for Islam, so they aren't going to be that disgruntled about a preacher who doesn't like Islam. However, most American most definately do not like hearing "god damn America" and ridiculous accusations that the government injected black people with AIDS.

My prediction: with the exception of the hard core liberals, this dog won't hunt. (That means this won't go anywhere.)

Also, the relationship between McCain and Parsley is far different than the one between Obama and his pastor. From what I understand, Parsley is just a right wing guy with an audience who has registered his support of McCain, and one hand washes the other, so McCain has said some nice things about Parsley in return. With Obama, he's written about Wright, and how close they are, in his books. He's been in the guy's church for 20 years. Wright was on Obama's campaign. Parsley is just a supporter, and he'd be supporting whoever was the Republican nominee.

Just my thoughts based on what little I've learned of the issue since you began the thread.