TIME: Christian Leaders Unite Behind McCain
TIME's Scherer reports:
At a meeting Tuesday in Denver, about 100 conservative Christian leaders from around the country agreed to unite behind the candidacy of John McCain, a politician they have long distrusted, marking the latest in a string of movement that bodes well for McCain's general election prospects among the Republican base.
"Collectively we feel that he will support and advance those moral values that we hold much greater than Obama, who in our view will decimate moral values," said Mat Staver, the chairman of Liberty Counsel, a legal advocacy group, who previously supported Mike Huckabee's candidacy.
"There are people who came through the primary with very mixed emotions of the candidate," Staver continued, noting that many in the group had been in Denver to attend a separate meeting for pastors. "This event was to put those aside."
The group included leaders like Phyllis Schlafly, the long-time leader of Eagle Forum; Steve Strang, the publisher of Charisma magazine; Phil Burress, a prominent Ohio marriage and anti-pornography activist; David Barton, the founder of WallBuilders and Donald Hodel, a former secretary of the Interior, who previously served on the board of Focus on the Family. Jim Dobson, the head of Focus and an outspoken critic of McCain, did not attend. The McCain campaign was also not directly represented at the meeting.
A second person who attended the event, but asked not to be named, said that the group was motivated principally by a desire to defeat Barack Obama. "None of these people want to meet their maker knowing that they didn't do everything they could to keep Barack Obama from being president," the participant said. "You've got these two people running for president. One of them is going to become president. That's the perspective. That that's the whole discussion."
Yeah right. Just because a bunch of leaders are behind him doesn't mean the grassroots are behind him. The Christian leaders endorsed anyone but Huckabee and their followers went for Huckabee. Like the grassroots are going to listen to their leaders again after the failer of Christian leadership during the primaries. Hucks Army (20,000) grassroot volunteers for Huckabee want Huck as VP and if Mac doesn't pick a social conservative they will not vote or volunteer in November. That is a givin. Pundints don't know anything about real, middle/lower class, Christian voters. They automatically think we vote GOP, but this year they may find that the GOP left us.
There is no way, no how, that I will vote for McCain. Period. These so called leaders will mostly be dead soon, and I mean that in the most neutral of factual ways and not at all mean spirited. They have led us to this place and we will go no further. If that means Obama and 24% inflation, gas at $8.79 a gallon and 15 million dead due to his appeasement of Islam.
So. Be. It.
The price of going with certain and total sell out of McCain who will then give us EXACTLY THE SAME for which we will then be blamed is too high.
There is not one real bit of difference between them. McCain just as an (R) after his name.
Well, there is more going on here than the surface story. McCain's campaign is not energizing the grassroots; that much is fairly clear. So the question is whether the grassroots will, in fact, sit home, whether they will energize themselves or whether someone else can energize them. No way to tell right now. But an energizing effort must start somewhere; just like the NRA announcement about advertising against Obama, not necessarily for McCain. If this effort works, you may see others.
Well, damn! I'd hoped this crowd would have stayed in that dark cave they inhabit.
Perhaps this will be the year the voters of America tell them to keep their narrow minds to themselves. That would be nice -- unlikely, but nice.
Funny, isn't it, that these people, who wear their "faith" on their sleeves, are so able to so easily change their stripes? Aren't "believers" supposed to be stalwart in their beliefs? Sad bunch. WWJD? He'd kick them to the curb!