What Will the Religious Right Do with the GOP?

A most interesting article appears in US News online -- It tells about the divide within the GOP "religious" base. Mitt Romney has made a pilgrimage to Pope Jim Dobson to seek his blessing, but apparently Jim's not sure that Mitt's sound enough, and the 2nd tier of Brownback and Huckabee seem unable to get traction. Dobson's apparently definitely not supporting John or Rudy, so who is left?
Consider this:

The Christian right's consternation over Giuliani, McCain, and Romney is a remarkable turnabout from 2004, when the movement was united behind the re-election of George W. Bush. White evangelicals, who made up roughly a quarter of the electorate in 2004 and 2006, accounted for nearly 4 in every 10 Bush votes. "I don't think any of the three are remotely acceptable, and I don't think I'm an outlier," says Michael Farris, a top Christian activist who organized meetings between Bush and evangelical leaders for his first presidential run. "Giuliani holds the opposite view of the Republican platform on social issues, Romney has held both sides of those issues, and McCain picked fights with us the last time he ran for president." An early February meeting of the Council for National Policy, a club of powerful social conservatives whose members include Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Left Behind author Tim LaHaye, was thick with fretting over '08. "I've never seen more disillusionment at this point in the election in 30 years," says a source close to the Council for National Policy, which prohibits members from discussing meetings with the media. "There's a revolt out there, a feeling these top three are being pushed on us by Republican leadership in D.C."

And then consider this:

If Giuliani winds up harnessing enough moderate Republican support to win the nomination, the GOP will have another problem on its hands: how to get evangelicals to the polls in the general election. "Evangelicals just won't vote" if Giuliani is the nominee, says the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land. "He'll lose Ohio, perhaps Tennessee-maybe even Texas." To Christian conservatives, it's a losing formula. But they still have to find a winning formula that includes them.

So, the upcoming election looks to be quite interesting, for it would appear that the GOP must give obeisance to this crew or they'll stay home. All of which should be good news for the Dems, unless they really blow it!!!

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