Jeff Sheler: November 2007 Archives

Fred Thompson apparently is about to get the boost he was hoping for in his troubled courtship of social conservatives. Citing anonymous Republican sources, the AP is reporting today that the National Right to Life Committee—the nation’s most prominent anti-abortion group with local chapters in all 50 states—will endorse the former Tennessee senator tomorrow morning.

While the organization refuses to discuss the pending announcement, its endorsement is seen as an acknowledgement of Thompson’s strong pro-life voting record while in the Senate. Campaigning in Iowa, Thompson had this to say about the annoucement, according to the AP:

“It speaks for itself,” an upbeat Thompson told reporters while campaigning here—even as he talked in hypothetical terms and declined to confirm the endorsement. “These are people who supported me in times past. I think it would be a perfectly natural thing to happen. I've had a 100 percent pro-life voting record in the United States Senate. And I think they know that, and that's the way I would govern if I was president.”

Personally he’d like to, but for now he won’t.

That’s what Mitt Romney is telling supporters about whether he will give a speech explaining his Mormon faith. Pundits and others have been advising the former Massachusetts governor for days that the best way to tackle concerns about his religion—many conservative Christians consider Mormonism a cult—is to face them squarely in the vein of JFK’s 1960 speech about his Catholicism. Here, according to the AP, is what Romney told a campaign gathering in New Hampshire over the weekend:

“I'm happy to answer any questions people have about my faith and do so pretty regularly,” the former Massachusetts governor said. “Is there going to be a special speech? Perhaps, at some point. I sort of like the idea myself. The political advisers tell me no, no, no—it’s not a good idea. It draws too much attention to that issue alone.”

To God-o-Meter, it sounds as if the question is still open. But in describing his dilemma, did Romney reveal too much about his political strategy? Jay Cost, in his Horse Race blog, thinks so, and he makes a good argument. :

At this point—Romney seems to be doing well with evangelicals in certain regards. He has picked up some endorsements from the religious right. He also seems to be getting some traction in South Carolina—which is the first real test of his strength among Christian conservatives… So—there may be no need to give the speech… [But] why tell people he's not giving the speech because his political advisers think it's a bad idea? I don't know—and I think that was a mistake. This comment made him seem far too calculating. Again—it is all a matter of appearances. We know what campaigns are really about. We know that they are rational, utility-maximizing organizations whose sole purpose is to get to half-plus-one. However, when the calculations are laid bare before us—we are turned off.

What do you think?

Joe Biden apparently is not bothered at all by his lack of endorsements by religious leaders. As reported by the Des Moines Register, the Delaware Democrat opened his remarks at an annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Des Moines over the weekend by poking fun at Republicans for cozying up to leaders of the Christian right. This is from the Register’s report:

The Delaware senator opened his speech by expanding on a running joke about Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani, who was recently endorsed by evangelical Pat Robertson. Biden said last week that every sentence Giuliani says “has a verb and 9/11 in it.”

“I should start with an apology ... I was wrong,” [Biden] said. “He called to tell me after Pat Robertson's endorsement that there's an amen in every sentence he says, too. It's amazing how these Republicans get converted, isn't it? Amazing. Rudy Giuliani and Pat Robertson. God bless you.”

Aides to Christian radio personality James Dobson are denying a report that the influential Focus on the Family founder is planning to endorse Mike Huckabee.

“Dr. Dobson isn't close to an endorsement of anyone in the 2008 race,” Focus on the Family senior vice president Tom Minnery told The American Spectator in an email this afternoon.

Earlier in the day, the magazine’s Washington Prowler blog, citing a Huckabee campaign source and an unidentified Dobson “advisor” in Colorado, reported that Dobson has decided to back the former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor and plans to announce his endorsement at a campaign event in Iowa within the next ten days.

After updating its online report to include Minnery’s denial, the magazine added this:

Contacted again by The American Spectator, those who initially spoke on background about the Dobson endorsement insisted that as of last night, plans were being put in place by the Huckabee campaign for an announcement and endorsement tour, and stood by their account.

God-o-Meter suspects that the mood is a tad glum over in the Thompson camp this week. In the recent flurry of Christian right endorsements of top-tier GOP candidates, the former Tennessee senator has conspicuously come up empty handed.

For a candidate who pitches himself as the only “consistent conservative”—and who some tout as a “southern-fried Reagan”—that’s got to be disappointing. If Thompson hopes to break through in Iowa, and especially in South Carolina, he’ll need to establish some credibility among religious conservatives. While no guarantee of success, picking up a high-level endorsement—as Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Mike Huckabee all have done this week—would certainly help.