Thompson Clears things Up on his Church going



The question was asked here: What kind of Churchman is Fred Thompson? With him running as the heir of Reagan and seeking the Conservative vote, we've all been wondering which part of the base would he appeal to. With Christian Conservatives central to the "conservative" vote, we've been wondering where they would go.

According to this report from Bloomberg News, Fred has admitted he's not much of a church-goer and doesn't plan to talk much about religion on the stump. That admission makes his place in this race quite interesting, since everyone thought he'd be trying to woo some of the religious crowd with his conservative spiel.

So, where does he fit in this field?

  • Most conservative evangelicals are uncomfortable with Romney's Mormonism
  • Mike Huckabee is a Southern Baptist pastor but from what I've read he can't even get Richard Land's support.
  • Sam Brownback is as conservative a religious person as there is, but he's done even less than Huckabee and by most accounts is a non-factor now. Which, I might add has come as kind of a surprise to me.
  • John McCain has never made the religious right vote a high priority, though he's tried to mend fences after his 2000 tirades against the religious right (which were really quite perceptive)
  • Rudy Giuliani just goes to show you that you can never peg a group. He's the most popular candidate among religious conservatives and yet he's twice divorced, is pro-choice, pro-gay (or at least was), pro-gun control. But he's the law and order candidate -- a kind of Nixon reincarnated.
So, again, where does Thompson fit into this field. He's made it clear that he's not going directly after the religious vote; that he's been transparent on this issue is commendable, but the question is where does this leave him. Perhaps the model he could look to is Barry Goldwater, but Barry is kind of out of favor these days -- too liberal.

Comments

Popular Posts