“ABH”…
“Anybody But Huckabee” for Veep . . .
Hey! I did not say it, K-Lo did. In a nutshell:
In Texas just before Independence Day, former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee co-sponsored a “Rediscovering God in America” pastors’ conference. The event, Huckabee said, was “to remind and encourage us that the proper position for America when facing evil and confronting enemies is not to find excuses for defeat but to find the resources, the courage and the strength from God necessary to win.” But if John McCain thinks Huckabee as veep will give divine strength to the GOP ticket in November — he’s wrong.
[...]
In substance and style, Huckabee is bad news. Having run ads calling himself a “Christian leader,” Huckabee ran on identity politics — usually a mainstay of liberal Democrats. Although he had the third-highest number of votes in the Republican race this year, polls also showed him a tough sell with nonevangelical Republicans, who felt they had little in common with his mixed record as a conservative. [Emphasis added.]
Which, sadly, does not speak very well of evangelical Republicans, particularly when you look at the other arguments K-Lo makes against the Huckster. I would hope that Evangelicals were smarter than to engage in identity politics – I mean look how much it has helped blacks!?
One of the great things about this nation is that it is designed to bring the different together while respecting the differences. Identity politics plays on the differences, exaggerates them, and uses them as a wedge – precisely the opposite of how the nation was designed to operate. I preached about that a little bit on my Godblog when I was on a jury back in ’05. It’s worth thinking about again.
Meanwhile . . .
If this Gallup poll (HT: The New Nixon) resembles reality, and I think it does, McCain does not need the Huckster.
Americans who say religion is an important part of their daily lives support John McCain over Barack Obama for president, 50% to 40%, while their less religious counterparts support Obama over McCain, 55% to 36%.
Boy, does that speak a mouthful. The demographic breakdown is not much to talk about – Catholic, Protestant, Jew, and then ethnicity is thrown in. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to break that down to Protestant Evangelical, Catholic Evangelical, Independent Evangelical, and so forth. What I’d really like to know are how many self-identified Evangelicals claim religion as “important, very important, not very important,” etc., and how that breaks down with voting patterns.
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