October 2007 Archives

Why is Giuliani still popular with rank and file evangelicals? Whether by design or a happy byproduct, part of the reason is that Giuliani has compensated for his liberalism on abortion and gay rights through attacks on Islamofascism. They may seem unrelated but here’s my logic

For many Christians, the war on terror is not just a fight against terrorists. It’s part of a much larger global struggle between Christianity and Islam for the souls of the world’s population. Privately, many evangelicals were appalled that President Bush declared Islam to be a “religion of peace.” They preferred the construction of Franklin Graham, who said the Qur’an “doesn't teach peace, it teaches violence.”
With his strong rhetoric on Islamofascism, Giuliani is signalling that he’s on the right side of that divide.

Evidently, Clinton didn't do as well as The Corner (and David) thought she did:

We now know something that we did not know before: When Hillary Clinton has a bad night, she really has a bad night.

In a debate against six Democratic opponents at Drexel University here Tuesday, Clinton gave the worst performance of her entire campaign.

It was not just that her answer about whether illegal immigrants should be issued driver's licenses was at best incomprehensible and at worst misleading.

It was that for two hours she dodged and weaved, parsed and stonewalled.

And when it was over, both the Barack Obama and John Edwards campaigns signaled that in the weeks ahead they intend to hammer home a simple message: Hillary Clinton does not say what she means or mean what she says.

And she gave them plenty of ammunition Tuesday night.

Read the rest of the evaluation here.

Her flip-flop over the NY driver's license (I posted the video at Reformed Chicks) demonstrates something very important: she'll say anything to get elected. We all know it and so does the general public. And if the Democrats do hammer her on it, it will help soften the ground when the Republicans hammer her on it as well. I would think that the voters are getting a little tired of being lied to by politicians election after election. Promised one thing but getting something entirely different.

I'm not as depressed as others are over her chances (though, I have a terrible track record for predicting what voters will do, so take this for what it's worth -- nada). She has close to 50% disapproval rating and 50% of those polled say they won't vote for her no matter what. That number includes Democrats (remember this polling data).

David, why’d you apologize so quickly???? I was hoping you and Richard would tear each other’s eyes out for a few days before you made up.

Ok, I admit that would have given me mixed emotions. Since Richard has been a wonderful contributor to Beliefnet since 1999 and since you’ve been a wonderful contributor in recent years, I really would have been torn over who to root for.

But now that you’ve attempted to move the discussion past the personal toward the substantive, I guess I’ll follow you there, too.

Richard, I think David’s most important argument is that religious conservative leaders are less powerful than they used to be in part because the rank and file has seen what playing the political game has gotten them. Not much, in David's view. In fact, he argues that it’s harmed Christianity by giving a distorted view of Jesus's message. In my opinion, the best evidence David offered on this was the absence of “poverty” from the list of issues considered at the Values Summit. Wasn't that pretty telling?

Richard, what say ye to that?

I have to take exception with Huckabee's comment:

"I think they are going to have a hard time going out into the pews and saying tax policy is what Jesus is about, that he said, ‘Come unto me all you who are overtaxed and I will give you rest.’”

I'm sorry but I think a case could be made against raising taxes on the grounds of excessive spending, excessive taxation and the unfairness of targeting one group. I can't understand why anyone would want to reward this Congress with more money to throw around like drunken sailors. If the money actually made it to the poor instead of a huge government bureaucracy, I might be tempted into agreement but knowing that our government wastes so much of the money that they collect, I feel no compunction to vote for those who would take more.

It would be poor stewardship of the money that we have been given by the Lord to vote for someone who wouldn't work to end spending our money on a bridge to nowhere,a hippie museum and a center in Rangel's name, just to name a few of the more egregious examples. Taxes are a very important issue in this race and I for one I'm going to vote for the Republican candidate that understands that and evidently, that isn't Huckabee.

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Libery Council, offers this reply to David Kuo's recent posts Huckabee and the evangelical mullahs and the Mullah's problem:

Such unchristian, harsh and hostile language from David Kuo! In describing “Dobson, Land, Perkins, Bauer, etc.” in such demeaning and unflattering terms as “increasingly old, tottering, out of touch, self-appointed evangelical mullahs,” Kuo may reveal more about his own unresolved hostilities and conflicts than he does about the status of the modern Evangelical movement.

First, in the interest of accuracy, Jim Dobson (born in 1936), Tony Perkins (born in 1963), and Gary Bauer and myself (both born in 1946, the same year as Presidents Clinton and Bush), regularly appear in public “without Geritol” and give every appearance of being actively involved both in the Evangelical movement and public policy for years to come (no doubt to the consternation and disappointment of Mr. Kuo).

As for these Evangelical leaders being out of touch and with decreasing influence, who does Mr. Kuo think hosted the Values Voters Summit which prompted nearly 3,000 evangelical activists from across the nation to come to Washington – Tony Perkins and his organization? It appears to me that David Kuo’s comment that a “new generation of evangelicals” have never heard of these leaders is the profound wish becoming the father of the inaccurate thought. If these leaders have no influence, then why attack them?

And, by the way, isn’t this the same David Kuo who called on Evangelicals to take a hiatus or sabbatical from political involvement? Why, yes it is! Make up your mind, David. Are you in the process or out this election cycle? Why are you so concerned about Mike Huckabee and whether or not Evangelical leaders support him?

I know of no comment from any of the Evangelical leaders Kuo mentions that could be taken as a criticism of Governor Huckabee, whom I have known for more than 20 years, consider a personal friend, and think would be a perfectly acceptable candidate for ANY public office. My advice to David Kuo would be if you really like Mike Huckabee, quit saying nice things about him because your endorsement would harm him more than it would help. If I were running for office, heaven forbid, and you endorsed me, David, I would be terribly depressed.

This morning's Washington Times reports that an assortment of tax and immigration conservatives are ratcheting up their opposition to Mike Huckabee based on his tenure as Arkansas Governor. This quote pretty much sums up the story: "We called him a...

These are the words of someone who fought the battle over abortion for years but has seen very little fruit from his efforts: “I thought in my enthusiasm,” he told me with a smile, “that somehow we could band together...

The other thing that struck me about the WSJ piece David referenced was how Huckabee's solid pro-life record really didn't count for much. The Huckabee flaws, according to the piece, included: "He's hostile to free trade, hiked sales and grocery...

Steve, I couldn't agree with you more! I can't believe that Giuliani is doing so well among conservative Christians and shame on Brownback for even hinting that Giuliani has his support. As much as Giuliani would like to minimize the...

This morning we have the stunning news that Sam Brownback, the leading pro-life advocate in the Senate, has nuzzled up to the most pro-choice candidate in the Republican race, Rudy Giuliani. After meeting with the New York City mayor, who...

Michele asks: How are the Republicans not capitalizing on the "muscle" of the "Christian Right old guard?" How can they get their support when no one is willing to offer it yet? The very fact that the Christian Right old...

How are the Republicans not capitalizing on the "muscle" of the "Christian Right old guard?" How can they get their support when no one is willing to offer it yet? Isn't it part of the problem that the Christian leaders...

I expect the next president to be a Democrat. As a conservative, I expect to be unhappy with that result. But I also expect to be unhappy if the next president is a Republican. That's how disconsolate I am about...

Michele - I'm with you. Great points on the endorsements. Only thing to add is that once people start saying Huckabee is like Alan Keyes I've got to think they are a little bit nervous because Huckabee is the anti-Keyes....

"Dobson and Bauer and Land are shadows of their once-powerful selves. They have little power anymore to mobilize for any particular candidate"-- David Kuo I'll stick to Dobson, since I think he's more powerful than any Christian Right leader to...

David, thanks for the welcome! I think you and I are probably in agreement that it's a good thing that the influence of the religious right is on the wane. I don't think a group of self-appointed Christian leaders can...

Seems like Dan’s Demoss interview confirms Michelle’s theory that religious conservative leaders are placing a huge emphasis on pragmatism. Though he backs off that at the end, Demoss first says he’s not supporting Huckabee because he hasn’t raised enough money...

Just a note on how I view my politics and my faith and the intersection between the two. It matters much because the latter is far more important to me than the former. Here's what I wrote a few weeks...

Michele - Greetings from this corner as well. Great to meet you and great blog and greater heart behind the blog. I agree with you that the religious right isn't dead. That isn't what I meant to communicate. What I...

PR big shot Mark DeMoss, one of Mitt Romney's most powerful and active evangelical backers, is well suited to join today's debate on whether Christian Right leaders are forsaking the evangelical grassroots by declining to support Mike Huckabee. After all,...

Steve, thanks for the welcome! I look forward to arguing politics during this campaign season. And yeah, it would make sense for them to support Huckabee if they were only concerned about the social issues but the group also includes...

Steve, thanks for the welcome! I look forward to arguing politics during this campaign season. And yeah, it would make sense for them to support Huckabee if they were only concerned about the social issues but the group also includes...

First of all, welcome, everyone, to our new mix-it-up, thrash-it-out politics blog. Like most of you, I'm fascinated by what is going on among conservative Christians and politics these days. I am not, however, surprised by the rift between members...

David, as thrilled as I was to see Bobby Jindal win as governor in my home state last weekend, I strongly caution against reading the victory as any kind of bellwether for how the 2008 vote may go for the...

"The Huckabee issue" may prove to be the final undoing of the increasingly old, tottering, out-of-touch, self-appointed evangelical mullahs. It begins with the mullahs. Keep in mind that it is this group of men - Dobson, Land, Perkins, Bauer, etc....

(Sorry about that. What was I thinking? Back to rehab for me.) Dan, speaking as a Christian rightist, I find the travails of the Christian Right made manifest by this political year to be perhaps the biggest political story going....

Michele, welcome to Beliefnet! It’s great having you as part of Casting Stones; we’re big fan of your Reformed Chicks blog. As for the notion that religious leaders won't rally around Huckabee because he doesn’t have a chance, Huckabee had...

The values voters straw poll results probably reflect what's going on in the conservative Evangelical community in general. There are some who believe that the abortion issue is so important that it trumps all other issues to such an extent...

Even after Mike Huckabee won the Values Voter Summit’s on-site straw poll last weekend in a landslide--Mitt Romney beat him by a hair in the corresponding online poll--the Christian Right’s top leaders have refused to galvanize behind him. Has a...

Readers of my Crunchy Con blog know that I have little use for the GOP field this year, but I gotta say the more I see Mike Huckabee, the more I like and admire him. An Obama-Huckabee race in 2008...

Walking the halls at the Washington Values Voter Summit, I ran into Rev. Patrick Mahoney, a Washington-based Christian Right activist, who revealed that he had sat down with DNC chair Howard Dean last week. Mahoney, a longtime DC fixture whose...

One of the biggest faith-and-politics mysteries has been why religious conservatives haven't rallied around Huckabee. He was told they were waiting for him to get "traction" and he said, hey you guys ARE my traction. And it's true: if they...