Faith Plays Complex Role In '08 Race

CBS' Kathy Frankovic: Candidates' Beliefs Not Well-Known, But Voters Want Them To Be Strong

(CBS)  By Kathy Frankovic, CBS News director of surveys

---

How is religion affecting this year’s presidential campaign?

Voters want religion to matter in this election, but so far, no candidate seems to be benefiting.

Sometimes, voters misperceive a candidate’s religion. In August, CBS News asked registered voters what they thought Barack Obama’s religion was. Most of them - 84 percent - said they didn’t know. But the largest number of those who thought they did know - nearly half of those who guessed any religion at all - thought Obama was a Muslim.

Many voters simply don’t know much about some candidates’ religions. As recently as this summer, only a third of voters knew that Mitt Romney was a Mormon. Nearly everyone else said they did not know his religion.

Whether or not the voters know much about a candidate’s religious beliefs, they generally don’t give the current crop of candidates any credit for having them - at least not yet. Republican Mike Huckabee is an ordained Southern Baptist minister, but just two weeks ago, when CBS News asked registered voters whether he had strong religious beliefs, about three times as many said he did not as said he did. Even self-identified evangelical voters don’t see Huckabee as one of their own.

Huckabee’s problem with voters is that he remains unknown to most of them: half couldn’t answer the strong-beliefs question either way, and when asked for an overall opinion about Huckabee, three in four voters took the opportunity to say they were undecided or didn’t know enough yet to say.

Religion matters to voters: two-thirds told CBS News in June that it was important to them that candidates have strong religious beliefs, even if they were not the same as the voter’s own. And in October, 50 percent said it was important to them that a candidate shares their own religious beliefs. But it’s hard to share beliefs with someone if you don’t think he or she has any. We asked voters if other candidates had strong religious beliefs, and the most religious candidate was a Mormon, Mitt Romney. Voters think poorly of the leading candidates. Half don’t think Fred Thompson has strong religious beliefs, and 68 percent don’t think Rudy Giuliani does (fewer than 20 percent said that either Thompson or Giuliani was a strong believer). As for the current top Democrat, 74 percent - three in four voters - said they don’t believe Hillary Clinton has strong religious beliefs.

But the good news for Clinton is that Democrats are much less likely than Republicans to say sharing a candidate’s beliefs is important to their vote. Just 42 percent of Democratic primary voters say it is, compared with 66 percent of Republican primary voters. Two-thirds of conservatives care, compare with just one-third of liberals. Protestants care more than Catholics. But 66 percent of African-Americans, who are overwhelmingly Democratic, want their candidate to share their religious beliefs.

How does religion affect voters? The faith that an individual is raised in may impact that person’s political beliefs and values. But some people move away from the faith of their childhood. In fact, in a 2006 CBS News Poll, although 30 percent of our respondents said they were raised as Catholics, just 20 percent said Catholicism was “their religious preference today.” Fifty-eight percent of all those interviewed in that 2006 poll said their personal faith had changed at some point in their lives.

Religion mattered in 1960: Catholics overwhelmingly supported the candidacy of John F. Kennedy. But what is different nowadays is how religion matters: In recent elections, churchgoing Catholics vote more like churchgoing Protestants than other Catholics.

The vast majority of Americans (91 percent) believe in God or a higher power, and 59 percent pray often. The same percentage (59 percent) says religion is very important in their daily lives.

And many take the religious word seriously. In 2006, only 15 percent said they read the Bible or another sacred religious text daily, but three times as many told us they agreed with the statement that “The Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word.” Many Americans take the Bible literally when it comes to their belief - or lack of it - in the theory of evolution. Forty-four percent agreed with the statement that “God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years.”

That poll, along with more recent ones, illustrates several splits between the religious and the non-religious, underscoring that today the intensity of one’s religious beliefs can be more important than what those beliefs may be. Observant and non-observant voters have distinctly different views, not just on topics related to religious beliefs (such as abortion or evolution), but also on current political issues, like evaluating President Bush and the war in Iraq.

But Americans - even those who care the most about their religion - still have secular concerns. Although 60 percent of white evangelicals say they could not vote for someone who disagrees with their positions on social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, the top two issues they want to hear the candidates talk about this year are health care and the war in Iraq, the same issues that matter most to people who are less religious.

[gunownerdan]

"A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side."
-- Aristotle, 343 B.C.

[p-syrus]

All of which only serves to make me wish I was a drinking man.

[fibonacci_]

I wish they would all keep their tooth-fairy beliefs and hocus-pocus out of politics.

[jankebenz]

Thomas Jefferson was perhaps the leading philosopher and architect of our country. Jefferson was a Christian Deist and believed that God created the universe, but as a clockmaker - once set in motion, it would run itself on the rational laws of nature. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson speaks of God our Creator and the Natural Law. "All men are created equal with certain unalienable rights, among them Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The Liberty Bell of Philadelphia rang out on July 8, 1776, proclaiming the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.
Inscribed on the Liberty Bell are the words and the citation from the Book of Leviticus 25:10 -
"Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof - Lev. XXV:X".


The Bible was a part of colonial life, and the United States Constitution was written with a Christian culture in place. James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, recognized that we needed to govern ourselves by the Ten Commandments of God if we were to survive as a nation. We see this in our public life through the continuance in our oaths of office including the Presidency of the ending phrase, "So help me God."

[jankebenz]

IN GOD WE TRUST



This site describes the Christian heritage of our country, the United States of America.
Our historic documents were written with a Christian culture in place.
We have freedom and dignity as human beings because we are creatures of God.
The most common book found in American homes has always been and still is The Bible.
We need to trust in God and follow His way if we are to receive God''s blessing.

[fibonacci_]

Thomas Jefferson was smarter than that:

"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent."

"Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law."

"It is between fifty and sixty years since I read it [the Apocalypse], and I then considered it merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams."

"But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

"Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear."

[jankebenz]

The "Father" of our nation, George Washington had a strong belief in God, and is forever pictured in prayer during the cold winter months at Valley Forge. When the Revolutionary War was finally won, he sent the following message to the Governors of the 13 colonies, that he would " make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection." President George Washington stated it was impossible to rightly govern without God and the Bible. In his 1796 Farewell Speech following his second term as President, a speech noted for establishing and sustaining our great nation, he stated, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."

[usaprophet]

You get the sense that the country is desperate for someone to show us the way. Not the old way. Not the same way, but a NEW WAY. Think about this for a minute. What if we pulled all of our troops out of South Korea? They''ve been there for 50 years. Tens of thousands of them. What if we quit worrying about Iran, but instead, realized that its having a nuclear weapon will not mean the end of the world? What if we pulled all of our troops out of Iraq, and brought them all home? What if we realistically addressed the National Debt, and paid attention to REALLY DOING SOMETHING about stopping illegal immigration? These are the ideas Republican Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. He''s a ten term Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. Ron Paul has been married to the same woman for more than 50 years, which means he doesn''t come to the race with the sort of baggage some of the other candidates for the White House do. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. He was once a pious Lutheran, but now attends a Baptist church. He never travels alone with women, and once even dressed-down an aide for using the expression "red-light district" in front of a female colleague. I support the 2008 candidacy of Congressman, Ron Paul for President of The United States. Candidates with the high level of personal integrity and track record of adherance to The Constitution Ron Paul always demonstrates only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky. Go Ron!

[usaprophet]

Ron Paul''s message is not new. You could have heard it in 1964 or 1975 or 1991 at the conclaves of those conservatives who were considered outside the mainstream of the Republican Party. Back then, most Republicans appeared reconciled to a strong federal government, if only to do the expensive job of defending the country against Communism. But when the Berlin Wall fell, the dormant institutions and ideologies of pre-cold-war conservatism began to stir. In his 1992 and 1996 campaigns, Pat Buchanan, who calls Paul one of the Republicans he "most admires," was the first politician to express and exploit this change, breathing life into the motto America First (if not the organization of that name, which opposed entry into World War II). Like Buchanan, Paul draws on forgotten traditions. His top aides are unimpeachably Republican but stand at a distance from the party as it has evolved over the decades. His chief of staff, Tom Lizardo, worked for Pat Robertson and Bill Miller Jr. (the son of Barry Goldwater''s vice-presidential nominee). His national campaign organizer, Lew Moore, worked for the late congressman Jack Metcalf of Washington State, another Goldwaterite. At the grass roots, Paul''s New Hampshire primary campaign stresses gun rights and relies on anti-abortion and tax activists from the organizations of Buchanan and the state''s former maverick senator, Bob Smith.

[jankebenz]

1963 was a tumultuous year for the United States - the year of Vietnam involvement, civil rights discord, the Supreme Court reversal of 80 previous decisions with the removal of the Lord''s prayer and Bible readings from public schools, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, with the subsequent loss of values and direction in our society.


Secularism and atheism themselves became puritanical in the late twentieth century, as God, the Ten Commandments, the Bible, and school prayer were stamped out of public schools and American life. The result led to guns, *** education and the distribution of prophylactics in public schools, and subsequently violence, drug abuse, and loss of respect for one''s neighbor in American life, with near-destruction of the American family.

[fibonacci_]

When George Washington, as president, was given proclamations to sign, he used to edit out any reference to Jesus Christ. He attended church in Philadelphia, but habitually wandered out before communion. When the priest complained, Washington graciously apologized and then stopped going to church altogether on days in which communion was to be offered.

[jon_mccain]

You know, you can''t eat faith, can''t pay the bills with faith, can''t support a family or pay the mortgage with faith. It''s about time the candidates and the press stop pushing this as an issue and get back to talking about bread and butter economics which is the real foundation of this country.

[quatrops]

So even with white evangelicals, the primary political concerns are health care and the war in Iraq!

And Bush continues to go against the will of congress and the American people in both areas!

Hang in there, folks! In just over a year we will have swept this bunch of proto-fascists from office.

[realpatriot1]

fibonacci,

We live in a pluralisitc society and I don''t want any leader allowing their faith to supercede their Constitutional responsibilty to protect the rights and freedoms of all Americans. At the same time, it''s important to me to have a sense of what gives breath to the values of the people who will be protecting those freedoms and making the decisions that will effect us.

Dependence on hocus pocus is no substitute for rational and critical thinking and decision-making but
"tooth fairy beliefs" often instill ordinary men and women with extraordinary inspiration to do the right thing at the right time.

I can''t imagine a secular MLK, Anwar Sadat, Nelson Mandela,Cory Aquino,or Mahatma Ghandi responding with the same courageous risk-taking and decisiveness if they didn''t believe that they were being protected by a force greater than themselves.

That''s what I believe brings extraordinary leadership to bear on the kind of extraordinary challenges like the ones we currently face.

[fibonacci_]

I can respect that.

[gunownerdan]

"Religion, the all time champion of of false promises and exagerated claims. Religion has actually convinced people to believe there''s an invisible man living in the sky who watches over everything you say and everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of 10 things he does not want you to do. If you do any of those 10 things, he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry for ever and ever until the end of time, but he loves you."
- GEORGE CARLIN

[rowdytexan2]

Only a person''s actions show the worth of a person, not what they SAY about their religious or moral beliefs.

Don''t you just wonder which God it is that Dubya claims talks to every day? Every evangelistic right winger just gets off on his SAYING this...and yet they are so blind to what he is actually doing. As a person of faith, it is making me take a good hard look at those of piety.

And what God in the heavens above would say, Mr. Cheney, get a gun and go hunting this weekend? Or, Mr. Cheny, move Halliburton somewhere else, taxes here are gonna eat you up...it will take less money to bribe folks over in the middle east than to pay taxes here.

It is enough for me that someone says I have a belief system that allows me to have faith and hope in this wonderful country, and I will do the BEST to represent our people in honor and I will seek prosperity and good will for ALL! Then, first, tell us how they''re going to do it...and then go do it...

[fibonacci_]

I tend to agree with gunownerdan''s quote there. I am literally completely shocked that people who believe in religions are so shocked when people say they don''t believe in it. Just sounds pretty far out to me. I see no reason WHATSOEVER to believe in such crazy tales and ideas.

[Krazcarl]

Yea Bush has shown us what a born again chisten really is. Lets try an athesist he knows he won''t be forgiven and therefore acountable.

[fibonacci_]

Where''s singing Rick when you need him?

[jankebenz]

The question every American citizen and politician has to ask is, do we want to keep going as a nation without God, or revert back to trusting God to sustain us? The horrendous events of September 11, 2001 show our need for God''s blessing on our Nation. We desperately need to pray to God for his help in this latest threat to human freedom and our Western Christian civilization.
Our children need to learn about God, the Bible, and the Ten Commandments if we are going to preserve our Western culture.
We must support marriage and the traditional family.
We must preserve our freedom and our Bill of Rights if we are to enjoy our God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
America needs to turn back to God and live in harmony with our Creator

[simonsez40]

George Bush showed us what a ''man of faith'' is capable and frankly if anyone VOTES for a candidate because they like their RELIGION is nuts. Vote for the candidate that will do the best job for this country.

I''m fed up with this Conservative Compassion, Moral Base and Christian Right.......frankly they''ve ruined our country. It''s okay to want morals but there are better ways to instill integrity within our nation......what the Republicans tried to accomplish in the last 7 years is a disaster! Wake up people!

[simonsez40]

Where''''s singing Rick when you need him?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by fibonacci

LMAO he must be warming up his bible about right now!

[jankebenz]

During the world war years, Americans generally were raised the same, and our families gave us the same value system. In school, we were taught a morality based on the Bible and the Ten Commandments, said the Lord''s Prayer, recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, and sang God Bless America.

God Bless America,
Land that I love
Stand beside her,
And guide her,
Through the night
With the Light from above,
From the mountains,
To the prairies,
To the ocean,
White with foam,
God bless America,
My home sweet home.
God bless America,
My home sweet home

[gunownerdan]

Religion has been used for centuries by dictators and tyrants to control the masses.

"May God Almighty give our work His blessing, strengthen our purpose, and endow us with wisdom and the trust of our people, for we are fighting not for ourselves but for Germany."
-- Adolf Hitler, 1933 Berlin Speech

"I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord''s work."
-- Adolf Hitler, 1938

"I swear by God this Holy Oath, that I will render to Adolf Hitler, Fuehrer of the German Reich and people, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, unconditional obedience, and that I am ready, as a brave soldier, to risk my life at any time for this Oath."
-- German Military Oath of Allegience to Adolf Hitler, 1934

GOD WITH US = GOTT MIT UNS
http://www.nobeliefs.com/mementoes.htm

Hitler and the Church -
http://www.nobeliefs.com/nazis.htm

[simonsez40]

Sadly the churches and Mr. Bush have no knowledge of God. They are completely ignorant that in the Bible, the existence of ten righteous people in one of the cities would have been sufficient to spare Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction,[61] but ten righteous people are insufficient to spare the nation that refuses to defend the rights of the needy!

And what is perhaps even more significant, God equates the lying of church leaders%u2014the false prophets of Jeremiah%u2019s day, their adultery, and their encouragement of evil doers to be no different than the sins of those living in Sodom and Gomorrah.

The problem with today%u2019s church and political leaders is that they refuse to confess their own adulterous acts while condemning the most hated and reviled members of American society%u2014like poor Matthew Shepard%u2014heaping vile abuse and death upon others so the eyes of churchgoers are always directed away from themselves, insuring that others will always be the scapegoats.

[gunownerdan]

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
--Sinclair Lewis, 1935

http://www.nobeliefs.com/mementoes.htm

[fibonacci_]

"Our children need to learn about God, the Bible, and the Ten Commandments if we are going to preserve our Western culture."

I think we ought to focus more on preserving the world now instead. Religion divides it, that is hard to debate.

[simonsez40]

I agree gunownerdan and fibonacci - seems these past 7 years have been hypocrisy all wrapped up in a tidy - Christian bow.........all the while the Christian Party is rotten inside.....

[gunownerdan]

"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It Neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all law-religions, or religions established by law." -- Thomas Paine

"Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?"
-- James Madison, 1785

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries." -- James Madison, 1803


au.org

[jankebenz]

Its not hard to see that ever since America replaced God with our own agendas things have been going downhill for us. The bible says that when we reject God , he will withhold his protection and blessings. IN GOD WE TRUST

This site describes the Christian heritage of our country, the United States of America.
Our historic documents were written with a Christian culture in place.
We have freedom and dignity as human beings because we are creatures of God.
The most common book found in American homes has always been and still is The Bible.
We need to trust in God and follow His way if we are to receive God''s blessing.

Jesus Christ is more relevant today than ever before! In a secular global community that has essentially reduced everyone to a number, Jesus through his Church and his Word seems to be the lone voice crying out for the dignity and freedom of each individual human being. We hope and pray that Jesus Christ will help us Save Our Nation.



The United States of America and Western Civilization were founded on the Biblical ethic, where society is in harmony with God our Creator.

[revbates]

We should put our faith in God and not in politicians. Guilliani and Kuchinich say they are catholic but espouse philosophies that contradict their religion ... Obama''s church is in favor of same-*** marriage ... but he isn''t ... so what difference does their faith make? ... they don''t even follow their own espoused religons! Keep religion out of the government and the government out of religion ... that is the foundation of this country .. NOT religion!

[fibonacci_]

"The United States of America and Western Civilization were founded on the Biblical ethic, where society is in harmony with God our Creator."

You are over-simplifying things - don''t you see that? Look at the quotes here...these are real things that our founding fathers said. You are strongly influenced by your religion and I understand that, but I think one needs to take a more complicated world view if problems are to be solved.

[jon_mccain]

Jimmy Carter was probably our most recent president with strong religious convictions, he''s a good man but wasn''t exactly a great president.

[revbates]

"Jesus Christ is more relevant today than ever before!" ... only to Christians.

[fibonacci_]

Yea to us he is more irrelevant than ever before.

[sblake63]

After Obama started parading around a homosexual preacher (what a contradiction in terms LOL). I think he pretty much sealed his fate as far as not getting any evangelical votes. It was a crock in the first place him doing these gospel tours. No person who isn%u2019t a "milk toast" Christian (Shallow in faith) is fooled by Hillary or Obama trying to act "religious".

Halloween is almost over folks, but it looks like at least one of them has exposed himself for what he really is...

I attend on of the so called mega churches some of you anti American anti God moderates and liberals hate so much and let me tell you in 2006 there wasn%u2019t much enthusiasm about voting, but after seeing Hillary and Obama offend us with their phony posturing and parading around people who have NO BUSINESS speaking God''s word, we are now more energized more than ever to get out the vote. I haven%u2019t done any volunteer work for the GOP since 92 - This year and next everybody I know is going to be working the phones and pounding the pavement!

[jon_mccain]

Posted by sblake63

Oh no, we''re scared now.

[realpatriot1]

fibonacci,

You''re correct that religion is often what divides the world but, in fairness, it''s often what also brings it together.

On October 11 a group of moderate Muslim clerics under the banner of the Muslim Global Community reached out to the Christian community with a letter sent to several faith communities here entitled, "A Common Word Between Us and You".

At a time when the political leaders refuse to sit down and even discuss a serious path to peace at least some elements of the religious community are still willing to break the ice and engage dialougue.

Whether or not it leads to anything fruitful remains to be seen, but the effort is there.

My faith teaches me, "Blessed are the peacemakers" and we need all the peacemakers we can get in this world.

Don''t let the extremists of any faith define that faith for you. Doing so gives them power they don''t deserve.

[simonsez40]

I attend on of the so called mega churches some of you anti American anti God moderates and liberals hate so much and let me tell you in 2006 there wasn%u2019t much enthusiasm about voting, but after seeing Hillary and Obama offend us with their phony posturing and parading around people who have NO BUSINESS speaking God''''s word, we are now more energized more than ever to get out the vote. I haven%u2019t done any volunteer work for the GOP since 92 - This year and next everybody I know is going to be working the phones and pounding the pavement!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by sblake63

What has offended me Dear Christian is the actions of your dear CHRISTIAN president - what Obama and Hillary have talked about doesn''t compare to WHAT YOUR PRESIDENT has done - that is the problem with all you so-called Christian hypocrits - you see gay and then get all stirred up and then ignore the GRAVE CRIMES AND SINS your own administration has committed....

It''s easier to point fingers and preach hate then to look at you own rotten cores. That would be what President Bush has shown this country and I bet DROVES will come out to vote the Republicans right out of office....

[jankebenz]

I can,t think of a single presidential canidate that is truly a God fearing person or who,s platform is based on turning back to a God serving nation . Unfortunately they all say what the voter wants to hear and try to please as many as they can to attract votes. Since americans are so diversified and polarized on christianity and religion, chances are slim that any canidate will focus on a biblical foundation for this country.

[fibonacci_]

Wow if you think religion brings together what can I say. We need to see A WHOLE LOT MORE of what you are talking about because that is EXTREMELY RARE you have to admit. All in all, religion divides the world, I stand by my opinion.

[gunownerdan]

The Holy Bible and the Glorious Koran =
Two of the most dangerous and destructine weapons of mass destruction mankind has ever created.
Countless millions of people have been murdered over the past few hundred years using one of these two dangerous books as an excuse....

[fibonacci_]

"But the good news for Clinton is that Democrats are much less likely than Republicans to say sharing a candidate%u2019s beliefs is important to their vote. Just 42 percent of Democratic primary voters say it is, compared with 66 percent of Republican primary voters."

66 percent...I condemn them for this. How dare they do this to us. This is a very real problem.

[usaprophet]

Unlike Hitlery, and most of the other GOP candidates, Ron Paul actually served his country as a member of the military. Paul grew up in the western Pennsylvania town of Green Tree. His Father, the son of a German immigrant, ran a small dairy company. Sports were big around there and Paul was a terrific athlete, winning a state track meet in the 220 and excelling at football and baseball. After medical school at Duke, Paul joined the Air Force, where he served as a flight surgeon, tending to the ear, nose and throat ailments of pilots, and traveling to Iran, Ethiopia and elsewhere. "I recall doing a lot of physicals on Army warrant officers who wanted to become helicopter pilots and go to Vietnam," he said. "They were gung-ho. I''ve often thought about how many of those people never came back." Paul is given to mulling things over morally. His family was pious and Lutheran; two of his brothers became ministers. Paul''s children were baptized in the Episcopal church, but now he attends a Baptist one. He''s been married to the same woman for 50 years. As a young man, though, he did not protest the Vietnam War, which he now calls "totally unnecessary and illegal." Much later, after the United States invaded Iraq, he began reading St. Augustine. "I was annoyed by the evangelicals'' being so supportive of pre-emptive war, which seems to contradict everything that I was taught as a Christian," he recalls. "The religion is based on somebody who''s referred to as the Prince of Peace."

[sblake63]

Congress has a 25% approval rating now LOL. That%u2019s lower than the 33% when the GOP lost control. With the increased evangelical vote and congress (Democrats in control), people are going to connect the dots and were going to see a Surprise in 2008.

To suck up to the left, Bush is going to use recent improved security figures from Iraq to make the case for some unexpected troop reductions (probably early next summer). This will turn some minds (WEAK MINDS AT THAT LOL) off the war. I think we could have had a stronger president lol. But he''ll suck up to the mindless DROVES of anti war media brainwashed voters and start to wind down this war soon to retain the presidency under GOP control. Oh well it beats having some socialist democrat using MY money for somebody ELSES social problems.

Hillary is still hated my many, I think the democrats and making a big mistake for their side if she gets the nomination. Those of us who are old enough
To remember 1993 when Clinton stood before congress holding that %u201Cnational id card%u201D saying it would be used for universal health care etc etc, will come out
in DROVES to make sure his wife doesn%u2019t bring that nightmare to reality.

[usaprophet]

You get the sense that the country is desperate for someone to show us the way. Not the old way. Not the same way, but a NEW WAY. Think about this for a minute. What if we pulled all of our troops out of South Korea? They''ve been there for 50 years. Tens of thousands of them. What if we quit worrying about Iran, but instead, realized that its having a nuclear weapon will not mean the end of the world? What if we pulled all of our troops out of Iraq, and brought them all home? What if we realistically addressed the National Debt, and paid attention to REALLY DOING SOMETHING about stopping illegal immigration? These are the ideas Republican Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. He''s a ten term Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. Ron Paul has been married to the same woman for more than 50 years, which means he doesn''t come to the race with the sort of baggage some of the other candidates for the White House do. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. He was once a pious Lutheran, but now attends a Baptist church. He never travels alone with women, and once even dressed-down an aide for using the expression "red-light district" in front of a female colleague. I support the 2008 candidacy of Congressman, Ron Paul for President of The United States. Candidates with the high level of personal integrity and track record of adherance to The Constitution Ron Paul always demonstrates only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky. Go Ron!

[fibonacci_]

USAProphet, are you thefarrier? Put up some more Ron Paul stuff.

[usaprophet]

Unlike Hitlery and the so-called GOP frontrunner, Giuliani, Dr. Paul fights for the right of an innocent, unborn child. He believes the right to life is at the heart of the American ideals of liberty. His professional and legislative record demonstrates his strong commitment to this pro-life principle. In 40 years of medical practice, he never once considered performing an abortion, nor did he ever find abortion necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman. In Congress, he authored legislation that seeks to define life as beginning at conception (HR 1094). He is also the prime sponsor of HR 300, which would negate the effect of Roe v Wade by removing the ability of federal courts to interfere with state legislation to protect life. This is a practical, direct approach to ending federal court tyranny which threatens our constitutional republic and has caused the deaths of 45 million of the unborn. He also authored HR 1095, which prevents federal funds to be used for population control. Many other GOP candidates, except Giuliani, talk about being pro-life. Ron Paul took direct action to restore protection for the unborn. As an OB/GYN doctor, he delivered over 4,000 babies. That experience made him an unshakable foe of abortion. Many of you may have his book, Challenge To Liberty, which champions the idea that there cannot be liberty in a society unless the rights of all innocents are protected. Ron Paul respects the dignity of human life.

[simonsez40]

nightmare to reality.





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Posted by sblake6

We are living the NIGHTMARE under Bush. It can''t get any worse than what he''s created....