On Monday, the WSJ noticed the importance of the new media (BLOGS!) on this election and on Tuesday Eugene Robinson at WaPo followed suit.  Both pieces suffer from Democratic focus.  As Hugh Hewitt noted in repsonse to the WSJ piece, Romney is playing well in that arena while other Republicans are slow.  Needless to say, we like blog influence on elections, but we have to beware the Dean-like net-burnout.  I'd also like to note, in response to Hugh's comments, that while we are indeed independent of the Romney campaign and we do like the man, we are very narrowly focused on this blog to a single aspect of the campaign.  Whatever we do on Romney's "behalf" is a by-product of our desire to help properly define the role of religion in politics, elections, and governance.  All that said, here is hoping for an effective role for blogs in this campaign.  More from WaPo on new media and campaigns.

This is too important to ignore, even if it is not in the normal scope of this blog:  Romney's plan for dealing with Iran.   Among the top three issues facing all candidates this cycle, unless Bush gets it resolved in the meantime.

This blog is evolving to combat two strains of religious prejudice.  One from the left (Weisberg and Linker) and one from the far right.  The left leaning variety tends to get lots of press and sound like a reasonable debate so we talk about them a lot.  But every now and then we need to remind ourselves about what comes from the far right.  At least the lefties are willing to sign their name; to fail to do so should disqualify one from serious consideration.

Lowell:  A quick look at the site confirms its less-than-serious-nature.  One almost– almost– is embarrassed for the anonymous author, who describes himself as "a former Mormon missionary for 15 years."  That statement alone exposes him as someone who doesn't know what he is talking about.

Evangelicalism may be tearing itself apart.  My theory seems to be born out by this piece.  As political power is ascribed to the label, the fight over the label will render it meaningless, or at least useless.  The rise of the religious right was never just about Evangelicals.  Only the press thought that, and they used the label pretty much in place of the older, disfavored "fundamentalist."  It is the fact that the religious right is much bigger than just evangelicalism that says Romney has a much stronger shot than people may think. 

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