The Prince Of Darkness and Religion, Smarts From The Left, and more…
Denying Novak…
Remember that Novak piece from last Monday? You know, the one that painted Evangelicals as vindictive, judgmental . . . those sorts of things? Huck denied the story as he found someone to float Veep rumors on his behalf. Well, the denials keep piling up. (HT: EFM)
This blog came out of Novak’s contention that, essentially, Evangelicals were small-minded individuals that could not bring themselves to vote for a Mormon. I have begun to get the distinct impression that Robert Novak does not like us. Too bad we keep giving him fuel for his tirades. Admittedly, he makes mountains out of molehills, but we still give him the molehills.
Veep Rumors . . .
Earl Ofari Hutchinson does a spot on analysis of why McCain should pick Romney as his running mate. Hutchinson is a black liberal that sees everything, and I mean everything, through the lens of race. Yet this piece is intelligent and smart and pretty much right on. So why do I smell a rat?
The common wisdom appears to be that if Romney is the Veep choice, The Question has been immunized and will be a non-starter. I disagree. Please remember that during Romney’s run, it was the left that was most vituperative in their invocations of the issue of Romney’s religion (Weisberg, Woodward, Linker, et. al.). I think they believe they were effective, because I do not think they get the Huckabee factor at all. Therefore, I also think that they are salivating over the possibility of a Romney veep choice so they can do it all over again. I also think they think it will be effective because of McCain’s weakness amongst Evangelicals.
However, given last week’s California Supreme Court decision, “The Sleeper has awoken.” (Forgive my very geeky sci-fi allusion, sometimes I cannot resist.) Evangelicals may have rallied to one of their own in the primary, but with such a stark vision of a liberal future handed to them on a silver platter, they will rally as needed. I also think that absent that rallying point they will recognize a generic religion attack dressed up in Mormon clothing for what it is.
So, The Question may be immunized to the extent that it will not prove fatal, but the attacks would come, they would come ugly, and the fight would be horrendous. I think the left views a Romney veep choice as a weapon in their arsenal. It’ll backfire, but that will not prevent them from trying it.
Lowell: I’ll fire up my crystal ball and disagree slightly. I too think the left will come out swinging against Romney as V.P., and will make religious attacks. Something deep inside tells me, however, that the attacks would be harmless and may even help a McCain-Romney ticket. For one thing, I think analogies will abound to Joseph Lieberman in 2000. People will see the attacks and ask themselves: Why were religiously-based attacks against him illegitimate, if it’s OK to raise them against Romney?
Also, there seems to be something about raising such a tangential issue against the veep nominee that is simply . . . creepy. Stay with me on this. Maybe it’s because voters look at the V.P., rightly or wrongly, as a somewhat tangential figure who waits in the wings in case he’s needed to fill the president’s shoes. If the vice presidential nominee’s religion is being raised to attack him — a tangential attack on a tangential figure — that seems more like a bigoted attack than if it were made against the candidate at the top of the ticket.
We’ll see.
Although . . .
Mike Huckabee says he really wants the Veep job. However, as one Newsmax columnist notes in an analysis of Novak’s piece cited above:
Moreover, even though Huckabee lost no time in endorsing McCain once he clinched the nomination evangelical community sources dispute the veracity of Huckabee’s support. [Emphasis added.]
I’ll buy that! Huck getting the Veep job is not gonna happen save in the fevered imaginations of people that can smell a juicy “story.” Huck himself, in the article linked above on his desires said of his Obama aimed “joke” in front of the NRA:
Huckabee added: “It wasn’t the first dumb thing I’ve ever said. And . . . it won’t be the last dumb thing I’ve ever said.”
Not exactly the sort of admission that makes me want to vote for the guy. What if he says one of the those “dumb things” to the president of Iran, or Kim Jong Il, or someone else that does not like us real well and has nukes?
We Are Not Alone . . .
And no, this does not involve either Scully or Mulder. This involves the Brits. Check out what is happening on their politics and religion front.
On A Related Front . . .
From Lowell: I do not like to get into whining about unequal MSM treatment of Mormons generally, but this Newsweek piece caught my eye. (I do not read the magazine, but a copy happened to be open to the story.) What’s the thrust? Why, the high percentage of Mormons on reality TV shows. What? We are keeping track the religious affiliation of contestants on shows like “American Idol”and Survivor? But only one religion in particular? Do we know how many Catholics or Jews are among the contestants? This is the kind of nonsense that makes me think John is right about The Question not being dead if Romney is picked as the V.P. nominee.
Posted in Reading List | 2 Comments » | 
Print this post
| 
Email This Post
coltakashi on 19 May 2008 at 5:24 pm #
So how exactly does Obama attack Romney for historical associations with polygamy when he will also be endorsing gay marriage?
If McCain is smart, he will pick up the ball of the California Supreme Court ruling for gay marriage and run with it all the way to the White House. California, unlike Massachusetts, has no law that bars people coming there from out of state to enter into marriages that are not recognized as legal in their home states. California will soon be exporting gay marriage all over the USA, and there will be lawsuits tro try to force the home states to recognize those marriages as legal under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the US Constitution, setting up a conflict between the US Constitution, which is the Supreme Law of the Land (Article 6), and the Equal Protection provision in the 14th Amendment, on the one hand, and the statutes and constitutions of many states which have recently specifically barred gay marriage.
This issue can let McCain differentiate himself from the Democrats, all of whose presidential candidates went hat in hand to the gay rights groups and pledged to support full equality under the law, which clearly includes gay marriage. I cannot picture Obama actually denouncing the CA Supreme Court decision in any consistent way.
The need for a Federal constitutional amendment protecting the right of states to maintain normal marriage, and of the Federal government to recognize only normal marriage, is now apparent and unavoidable. First, there needs to be no allowance of the California-dominated 9th Circuit to force Idaho to accept gay marriage. Second, the Federal government gets involved in marriage all the time, from married family housing and allowances and medical and retirement benefits in the military, to tax deductions for joint tax returns, to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, to Federal employee benefits.
Obama is hardly on firm ground in allowing attacks related to religion on Romney. Every time he or a surrogate brings it up will be another occasion to remind voters about the racism and Anti-Americanism of the church Obama attended for twenty years. If Democrats want to make a real issue of it, Romney can get photo ops with black and Hispanic and Polynesian Mormons by just worshipping during the campaign in Atlanta and Los Angeles and visiting the campus of BYU-Hawaii, which is full of Mormons of all races. Obama, the son of an African Muslim, is not in a position to claim to represent the mainstream of American Christians against some Mormon threat. And as someone who is appealing to white voters on the grounds that he gives them an opportunity to reject bigotry is not going to help himself by trying to incite religious bigotry.
JLFuller on 20 May 2008 at 6:10 pm #
Colonel, because it is politics and democrats recognize there is a ton of anti-Mormonism out there with a wealth of votes they can tap into. No big secret there. We aren’t talking logic and reasoning, we are talking anti-Mormon bias.