Evangelicals were famously divided ruing this year’s Republican primaries–the New York Times dubbed it an “evangelical crackup–but the most viscous divisions were between those supporting Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. Huck’s evangelical forces saw Romney as the ultimately opportunist, converting to the social conservative cause only when he perceived that doing so would help cut a path to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Romney’s evangelical backers–there were a good number of them, particularly in elite circles–thought Huckabee was playing to the basest tendencies of the evangelical movement, campaigning to be a “pastor-in-chief” and cynically playing the Mormon card. (Remember Huck’s devil remark?)
With both men reportedly in the running to be John McCain’s vice presidential pick, the divisions between evangelicals for Huck and evangelicals for Mitt have resurfaced. A prominent evangelical Huckabee emailed GOM today with this Townhall post about persistent evangelical suspicions of Romney, with the title line “Huck Forces still attacking Mitt.”
Romney’s defenders–who, again, tend to the populate the elite conservative ranks–dismiss reports of evangelical antipathy toward Romney as the dirty work of Huck’s henchmen. Townhall is a good example. AllahPundit, meanwhile, takes the evangelical opposition to Romney to be more genuine.
Such sentiment makes the ecumenical God-o-Meter wince, but it nonetheless appears to be real. A Pew poll released last December reported as much:
Furthermore, the group of Americans most likely to say they value religiosity in a president – white evangelical Protestants – is also the group most apt to be bothered by [Romney's] religion. More than one-in-three evangelical Republicans (36%) expressed reservations about voting for a Mormon, a level of opposition much higher than that seen among the electorate overall.
McCain’s advisors have to be taking this into consideration. But if they’re counting more on independents than evangelicals anyway, Romney–the old, socially liberal Romney–doesn’t look like such a liability.
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posted July 30, 2008 at 3:52 pm
We can only hope so. I truly believe that the Evangelicals Right-Wing shares a great bit of responsibility in the downfall of our perception in the international community and the fact that they fell into the hands of Bush’s administration and allowed themselves to be used by the neo-cons is all the proof you need. Keep religion out of politics, period. We are living through proof that separation of church and state has its place for a reason.
posted July 30, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Considering that Obama will most likely have a Roman Catholic running mate, IF McClain choses Mitt Romney as his partner the Religeous
Right will probably not vote at all. They think that Catholics are “whores” and the LDS is Heathen.
What choice do they have? T. Boone Pickens?
posted August 1, 2008 at 11:49 am
I agree with all of the above. A small minority of Evangelicals need to stop mixing politics and religion. They are hurting the good of the Republican party and they are starting to make fools of themselves via their blatant irrational religious intolerance. Mitt Romney is not a Heathen. He is a fine outstanding Christian by most American’s definition.
posted August 1, 2008 at 11:03 pm
If Republicans want to win the presidential election- Mitt Romney has more to offer then Huckabee as a VP. If republicans want to hand Obama the presidency-so be it. Evangelicals need to put our country 1st.
posted August 2, 2008 at 9:56 am
No-most evangelicals will not be offended by Romney-the biggest character issue is the character of the President-the biggest issue with Evangelicals is abortion. As an evangelical, I cannot bear the idea of abortion-and especially partial birth.
There are many of us out there who would accept Romney with open arms.
I work in education in an at-risk high school and often sit by the side of young girls, 15-17, who have abortion after abortion. I do not want the government to spend one nickle of my tax money on promoting any type of abortion. Often, I sit by the side of a young teenager or run into one of these out of the classroom and, after the abortion, wonder why they choose to have one? I feel so sorry for them as many teens regret what they have done at a later date. You have to be a woman to undestand.
In the 20 years I have been in education, I have never had a young lady run up to me and say that they were glad they had an abortion. Often these girls have one without really thinking or feel they are in a position where they do not necessarily want to have an abortion but, at the moment, it is the best thing to do. Often, 6 months later, they are pregnant again.
I am very anti-Planned parenthood. No bag of goodies that young girls get from Planned Parenthood is going to stop young girls from haveing unprotected sex. If it was, we would not have so many young girls having abortions or having babies. I also am not in favor of putting young girls on birth control. There are often medical complications young 15-16 year olds have from taking birth control.
Teens in high school should be focusing their attention getting an education and learning how to date and build social relations with the opposite sex-not having sex!
Dr. Martin Luther King’s neice calls abortion ‘womb lynching’-There have been 53 million abortions since the ’70′.
So, as McCain is pro-life, in my opinion, it would be fine. Romney would bring a great background in economics and my second issue is who can get me more energy, oil or alternative, now. So Romney would get much support due to this.
God Bless
posted August 3, 2008 at 6:57 pm
PLEASE have someone with an understanding of spelling and grammar proof read these articles! The mistakes are so numerous and distracting I can barely focus on the content!
posted August 4, 2008 at 10:32 am
regarding Sue……….. about grammar….too bad not all of us have talents in grammar. your post shows you are letting the errors get in way of the message.
As for Romney if McCain chooses him, I think he would be an outstanding man for the job.
Huckabee is a jealous man and it shows. We do not need a preacher as a VP.
From what I have seen of Romney he speaks well and tries to see what the people are needing and asking.
posted August 5, 2008 at 5:01 pm
You cant get a more decent individual than Mitt ROmney (who doesnt wear his religion on his sleeve.) He is a highly moral and ethical person. He is pro-life and against gay marriage, contrary to the positions of Barack Hussein, who is even pro third-term abortion rights. Evangelicals better wake up to the fact that if they stay home and not vote for McCain (if ROmney is on the VP ticket), then they are biting off their noses to spite their faces. Obama’s positions on social issues are everything they stand against.