Team Obama was depending on John McCain, with a reputation for opting out of discussions about faith and hot-button issues, looking like a fish at a water at last night's Saddleback Civil Forum (here's the video). Didn't happen. Not by a long shot, One of the big surprises of the evening was that McCain shone.
The other big surprise was the the forum was that it hung largely on the hot-button concerns of the old Christian Right rather than the new agenda items of the supposedly post-Christian right evangelicalism. It was a poignant reminder that despite all he media hoopla about a burgeoning evangelical middle and left, culture war issues like abortion, gay marriage, judges--and culture war-related items like school vouchers, the right of faith-based organizations to discriminate in hiring, the war on terror--still hold a special place in the hearts of evangelicals.
How can you tell? Just watch for the biggest applause lines of the event. They come in response to McCain's conservative statements on culture war issues.
It wasn't supposed to happen that way. Look at this description of the issue areas from Saddleback's press release about the issues the Saddleback forum intended to cover:
"The primaries proved that Americans care deeply about the faith, values, character and leadership convictions of candidates as much as they do about the issues. While I know both men as friends and they recognize I will be frank, but fair, they also know I will be raising questions in these four areas beyond what political reporters typically ask. This includes pressing issues that are bridging divides in our nation, such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, climate and human rights."
Poverty. HIV/AIDS. Climate change. Human rights. The purported agenda items of the post-Christian Right evangelical movement. But they didn't get much air time last night. That gave McCain an open to rack up major points on topics he usually shies away from, with zingers that included a wish that Ginsberg, Stevens, Souter and Breyer would have never been appointed to the Supreme Court, a terse, unequivocal pledge to preside over a pro-life White House with pro-life policies, and a full-throated condemnation of the California Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage. Those lines brought down the house.
Obama got points for showing up in the lion's den, making it a lot harder for Christian Right leaders to demonize him, for expressing great sensitivity to evangelical concerns on issues ranging from abortion to embryonic stem cell research, and for talking openly about his Christian faith. But God-o-Meter wonders whether Obama was caught off guard by the fact that Warren's questions were largely plucked from the conservative playbook. That's what gave McCain the opportunity to remind conservatives he's one of them--and God-o-Meter occasion to wonder if evangelical conerns have changed a lot less than the mainstream media would have us believe.
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Mr. Obama hit it on the head. Making difficult decisions, especially against the constituents who got you there, are above his paygrade.
I was kinda disappointed in the shallow questioning by Rick Warren. What I mean by that, is, when he was asking about their stand on abortion, gay marriage, embryonic stem cell research, he just accepted their shallow answers and went on to the next question. I was really hoping Rick would have delved more into their answers and dig out of both candidates a more detailed, fuller answer.
I don't see how family values voters like myself can consider a candidate who cheated on his first wife with multiple women, then left her to marry a beer model flush with cash, and launch his political career. He filed marriage license papers for his new marriage before he even ended his first. Disgusting. How can we trust someone like this?
Add to this that he was one of the Keating Five, his wife misused charity and employee info to steal drugs, he keeps making attack ads that are demonstrable lies, however much I like their political effects. What does he stand for? I have trouble respecting a man like him, and am considering sitting this one out.
Odd Note: I may dislike Obama's policies, but at least he seemed to talk about a personal relationship with Christ. McCain seemed to just go back to his (moving) POW stories to cover up his discomfort.
Rick Warren's God talk? I don't know his god! Let me tell you about my God, Who is concerned for ALL LIFE. Kristen, you and I believe in the Same God. Does the people of America even know, the United States is the FIRST Nation in the World to develop Nuclear Weapons, and the ONLY Nation in the World to use them in War against another Nation! America makes Her Attack against other Nations dropping Her bombs, killing hundreds of thousand of men, women and children, as well as destroying their Land. When the damage is Complete, and members of the Military return home, they are called America Heroes. Every Nation across this World has every Right to Hate America! How much more of America's evilness will God allow before He sends Judgment upon this Nation? In that Day, it's too late to cry out, God, please bless America Again.
Senator Fred Thompson has a peculiar idea of what good character is. At the Republican National Convention, after saying proudly that John McCain was a major discipline problem (giving credit to his genetics, i.e. mother and father), and telling a story about his dating a girl who worked in a bar as an exotic dancer under the name of Marie, the Flame of Florida, he tells us that his behavior as a prisoner of war further proves his character. According to an article favorable to John McCain, called Prisoner of war by Dan Nowicki, Bill Muller in The Arizona Republic on Mar. 1, 2007 10:32 AM, McCain says that after being beaten (note he was not water-boarded, just beaten) he signed a confession saying "I am a black criminal and I have performed the deeds of an air pirate. I almost died and the Vietnamese people saved my life, thanks to the doctors."
I am sure that John McCain like many others, including John Kerry, is a war hero, but details of John war stories seems to change to fit the Republican priorities of the moment.
The stories that seems to never change are that John was fifth from the bottom of his class and a disciplinary problem at the Navel Academy, leading other young men into undisciplined behavior, including undisciplined behavior involving women; and, believe it or not, he and the Republicans seem to be proud of all this. Furthermore, let’s not forget that he committed a string of adulteries against his first wife who had waited for him during his time as a prisoner of war and then divorced her.
I don’t get it. It is the Republican’s who are always talking about setting examples for our youth. This is an example of what they think is a good example?
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