Hullabaloo

Sunday, September 14, 2008

 
The Right Genuflection

by digby

Eleanor Clift writes about McCain and the evangelicals in this week's Newsweek. She claims that it isn't just the Palin pick that has energized the Christian Right, as much as that pleases them. (They like to be catered to.)There were a couple of other signals they heard loudly and clearly:

When word leaked the Friday morning before the Republican National Convention that Sarah Palin was John McCain's choice for vice president, a group of 40 religious leaders meeting in Washington all gave a standing ovation. They were convinced that McCain would settle on one of his buddies, Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman, men whose pro-choice views render them unworthy contenders from the Christian-right perspective. They didn't know much about Palin, but the fact she wasn't Ridge or Lieberman was enough to make them cheer

They were so surprised by McCain's bold nod in their direction that their whole view of him changed. They were willing to re-evaluate him in the light of this astonishing appointment (though some in the room warned against getting carried away). "He'll disappoint you," they said, mindful of McCain's inconsistency when it comes to pledging fealty to the religious right

The account of this gathering comes from Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and senior adviser to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. He has been much in demand since the Palin pick, explaining to inquiring journalists the attributes of evangelicals and Pentecostals and where they differ from fundamentalists. He has a ready quip that he attributes to a Duke University professor: Evangelicals really, really like Billy Graham.

Fundamentalists think Billy Graham is a liberal. When news of Bristol Palin's pregnancy broke during the GOP convention, Cromartie fielded calls from journalists wondering about the impact on the McCain campaign and on Palin's status as an icon of traditional values. Cromartie assured them that McCain had ascended yet another rung in the eyes of conservative, religiously oriented voters because he didn't make the 17-year-old's pregnancy disqualifying. He noted that many of the mega-churches associated with the evangelical movement have crisis-pregnancy centers.

McCain is on a streak with evangelicals, which explains much of his sudden rise in the polls. "He's had a trifecta," says Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. First was the Saddleback forum and McCain's interview with mega-church pastor Rick Warren, where McCain put to rest doubts that he could talk about his faith. Second was the Republican platform, where language aimed at finding common-ground solutions to reduce the number of abortions was struck from the final draft. The omission received scant notice from the media but hugely boosted McCain's stock among pro-life activists. The offending language: "We invite all persons of good will, whether across the political aisle or within our party, to work together to reduce the incidence of abortion."

What could be more offensive than that?

The problem isn't that McCain is suddenly becoming a member of the religious right. I'm sure he isn't. The guy is one of the most "secular" types I've seen in a long time at this level of national politics. The problem is that he doesn't really give a damn about any of it. I have no doubt that he'll happily turn the social agenda over to ... Sarah Palin, the religious right's new poster girl.

They clearly aren't going to put her in charge of foreign policy or economics. What else is she going to do?


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digby 9/14/2008 06:00:00 PM |