Consensus Lacking In GOP Endorsements

Washington Post: Evangelical Vote Still Appears Divided

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Michael D. Shear and Alec MacGillis.

---

The endorsements of two Christian conservative leaders yesterday underscored the fractures that remain among evangelical voters less than two months before the first votes will be cast in the Republican presidential nominating contest.

Pat Robertson, the television evangelist who founded the Christian Coalition and once ran for president himself, threw his support behind former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, saying the "overriding issue" in the race is defending against the "bloodlust of Islamic terrorists" and calling abortion "only one issue" of importance.

Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.), a former White House hopeful and a favorite among some conservative Christian voters, endorsed Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), whose relationship with evangelical voters was once tarnished when he called Robertson an "agent of intolerance."

Despite efforts by some conservative Christian leaders to unify behind a candidate -- including threats from a few to create a third party if Giuliani becomes the nominee -- no single Republican appears to be winning the lion's share of support in that community.

Moral Majority co-founder Paul Weyrich is backing former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for president. Christian activist Gary Bauer, who ran for president in 2000, is with former senator Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee. Baptist leader Rick Scarborough has endorsed former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.

"We have seen all along that social conservatives are divided among the potential Republican nominees," said Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster not affiliated with any campaign. "This reinforces that division."

McCain's campaign hailed Brownback's endorsement as a boon for the senator's efforts in Iowa, where he has lagged badly in the polls. "Senator Brownback has a big following in Iowa," said Dave Roederer, chairman of McCain's Iowa campaign. "This sends a strong signal that Senator Brownback believes . . . McCain would make the best president."

Robertson stood by Giuliani yesterday to pledge his support for a man he said would attack out-of-control federal spending, appoint conservative judges, reduce crime and fight terrorism. Not once did Robertson mention abortion, same-sex marriage or gun control -- three issues on which Giuliani's stances are frequently criticized by social conservatives.

In an interview after his announcement, Robertson, the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, said he hopes his decision will help unite people of faith. "Abortion is important, but it's only one issue," Robertson said. "Given the fractured nature of the process, I thought it was time to solidify around one candidate."

Connie Mackey, a senior vice president of the Family Research Council, disputed Robertson's contention that Giuliani was an acceptable candidate for Christian conservatives.

"This is a man whose supporters basically are pro-family, pro-life, pro-traditional-marriage, and here he has stepped away from them to endorse a candidate who has been very honest in saying he does not support those issues," Mackey said of Robertson. "It's beyond puzzling -- it's a little strange."

Senior Giuliani aides said they believe they can use Robertson's endorsement to buck conventional wisdom, which has long held that socially conservative voters will not embrace the former mayor on Election Day.

"It provides a great rebuttal point," Ayres said.

But Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio said a recent poll suggests the endorsement is unlikely to move many voters to Giuliani's column and may antagonize some supporters. Among 1,000 Republican voters, respondents split almost evenly on the question of whether they were more or less likely to vote for a candidate who received Robertson's endorsement. And by a 3 to 1 ratio, current Giuliani supporters said they would view the endorsement negatively.

"Robertson has clearly become a polarizing figure in the party, and even more polarizing for Giuliani voters," Fabrizio said.

That may come in part from a series of controversial comments Robertson has made over the years. "We have insulted God at the highest levels of our government," he said after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "And, then we say, 'Why does this happen?' Well, why it's happening is that God Almighty is lifting his protection from us."

Robertson is seen by as many as 800,000 people a day on his "700 Club" talk show. But Clemson University political scientist Laura Olson said his influence among Christians has waned.

"That the Christian Coalition is a shell of its former self is the most you can say about it," she said.

Richard Land, a senior official at the Southern Baptist Convention, said Robertson's endorsement probably reflects a belief by the TV evangelist that Giuliani is the candidate most likely to beat the Democratic nominee.

"Pat Robertson may have decided that Rudy Giuliani is the best way to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House," Land said. "I'm not going to vote for Rudy under any circumstances."

Washingtonpost.com staff writer Chris Cillizza contributed to this report.

[trueprophet]

HOPE FOR AMERICA: PRESIDENT RON PAUL

-- No more meddling in other country''s political affairs
-- No more aggressive military actions overseas
-- No more torture prisons
-- No more pseudo-wars like the "War on Drugs"
-- No more IRS and unconstitutional income taxes
-- No more Federal Reserve (the group of private banks which owns our government)
-- No more U.N. (one world government) participation
-- No more NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO or GATT
-- No more North American Union
-- No more federal gun control laws
-- No more illegal aliens pouring-in over our country''s borders
-- No more illegal aliens allowed to roam freely in our streets
-- No more federal Laws which are not authorized by The Constitution
-- No more federal erosion of State sovereignty
-- No more unlimited federal government

They don''t call him "Dr. No" for no reason. The Doctor is in! Join us in this 21st Century political revolution at ronpaul2008.com

"Liberty, when it takes root, is a plant of rapid growth."
- George Washington

"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must...undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine

"Ron Paul doesn''t represent your Father''s school of political thought. He represents your Founding Fathers."
- Me

[trueprophet]

RON PAUL CAN WIN THE ELECTION
Ron Paul can win the GOP nomination. If he does, I predict a landslide victory in November of 2008. Even the oddsmakers in Vegas aren''t willing to discount his chances. They''re currently giving him 3:1 odds to win against Hitlery if he gets the nomination. Romney, McCain and the globalist, sell-out Giuliani aren''t given anything better than a 35:1 chance of winning if they get the GOP nod. All it takes is for formerly apathetic individuals to get off the couch and nominate him in their local Republican primary or caucus process. Political parties are nothing more than tools. Those who read the manual and use the tools properly will win the nomination for their candidate. For the past 20 years, many good people have stayed at home and accepted whatever candidate they let others select for them. This year, those people are learning how to use their vote to make a difference. In order to do so, you must participate in the Republican primary election or caucus process in your county, precinct or district. Nothing else matters. If we do this, we win. If not, we lose. The GOP has been suffering from declining participation for decades. Fewer than 10% of registered voters have ALL the power because they actually participate. Now the remaining 90% must surge to use their vote as a tool to bring about positive and long overdue political change in this country. The time to act is now. The time for political revolution has come. The time for Ron Paul is NOW!

[trueprophet]

CBS NEWS PREJUDICED AGAINST RON PAUL
Most people can see right through the prejudice CBS News obviously has towards Ron Paul. In the few times they''ve covered him at all, I''m suprised they didn''t have one of their graphics artists Photoshop some devil horns on top of his head in that worst ever photograph they always use of him. CBS obviously thinks that if they pretend Paul isn''t a top-tier GOP candidate, then their readers and viewers will eventually think so too. Whenever they are is forced to do a story on Paul, because some other mainstream source is covering him for some reason, the fact that their editors work overtime to slant their stories in such a way as to either marginalize his accomplishment, or present Paul in the most negative light possible, is obvious to anyone with a modicum of intelligence. "What about their polls?," you ask? As far as the CBS News poll is concerned, they don''t even include Paul on the list of GOP candidates which pollees can choose from, and then afterwards, report to you that Paul doesn''t even rank in their final tally. Ron Paul is getting major grass roots support nationwide. He has over 60,498 meetup group members in 1,155 Groups from 904 cities nationwide, with another 7,033 people more folks just waiting to hear when a new meetup group will start near them. He''s won ALL of the viewer phone-in polls in ALL of the GOP debates he''s been in, and has raised more money ($4.2 million) in one day than any other GOP candidate ever. Go Ron Go!

[trueprophet]

RON PAUL IS THE NEW WAY
What we need is a President who will 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. 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 the Middle-East, 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 of Presidential candidate, Ron Paul. He''s a ten term Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. He''s an intellectual who''s published four books, three of which are devoted entirely to sound economics and one to foreign policy. He was raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania as a pious Lutheran, but now he attends a Baptist church. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. Whenever he recollects the helicopter pilots he treated as an Air Force Flight Surgeon (Captain) during the Vietnam War, a war which he now says was "totally unnecessary and illegal," he laments, "They were gung-ho. I''ve often thought about how many of those people never came back." Candidates with the high level of personal integrity and proven track record of adherence to The Constitution, Congressman Paul has always demonstrated only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky.

[trueprophet]

RON PAUL WILL PRESERVE U.S. SOVEREIGNTY
All of the trade deals and world government organizations, which all of the presidential candidates support (except Ron Paul), such as the ICC, NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA, are all a major threat to our nation''s sovereignty. They transfer power from our government to unelected foreign elites. The ICC wants to try our soldiers as war criminals. Both the WTO and CAFTA could force Americans to get a prescription to take herbs and vitamins. The WTO has forced Congress to change our laws to meet their needs, and not our own. If anything, the WTO makes trade relations worse by giving foreign competitors a new way to attack U.S. jobs. The NAFTA superhighway, being built by a Spanish company, is just one part of a plan to erase our borders and create the North American Union, a single nation State like the EU, out of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, with a new, unelected bureaucracy and money system. Forget about controlling immigration under the NAU scheme. There won''t be any borders anymore, or a free America. Our limited, constitutional government will be gone forever. Let''s not forget the UN either. It wants to impose a direct Carbon Tax on us. Ron Paul successfully fought this move in Congress last year, but if we are going to stop ongoing attempts of this world government body to rule over us, we need someone in the White House who knows how to say "No." We must withdraw from any organizations or treaty that infringes upon our nation''s sovereignty.

[trueprophet]

HOPE FOR AMERICA: PRESIDENT RON PAUL

-- No more meddling in other country''s political affairs
-- No more aggressive military actions overseas
-- No more torture prisons
-- No more pseudo-wars like the "War on Drugs"
-- No more IRS and unconstitutional income taxes
-- No more Federal Reserve (the group of private banks which owns our government)
-- No more U.N. (one world government) participation
-- No more NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO or GATT
-- No more North American Union
-- No more federal gun control laws
-- No more illegal aliens pouring-in over our country''s borders
-- No more illegal aliens allowed to roam freely in our streets
-- No more federal Laws which are not authorized by The Constitution
-- No more federal erosion of State sovereignty
-- No more all-powerful (Orwellian) federal government

They don''t call him "Dr. No" for no reason. The Doctor is in! Join us in this 21st Century political revolution at ronpaul2008.com

"Liberty, when it takes root, is a plant of rapid growth."
- George Washington

"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must...undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
- Mahatma Gandhi

[trueprophet]

HOPE FOR AMERICA: PRESIDENT RON PAUL

-- No more meddling in other country''s political affairs
-- No more aggressive military actions overseas
-- No more pseudo-wars like the "War on Drugs"
-- No more IRS and unconstitutional income taxes
-- No more Federal Reserve (the group of private banks which owns our government)
-- No more U.N. (one world government) participation
-- No more NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO or GATT
-- No more North American Union
-- No more federal gun control laws
-- No more illegal aliens pouring-in over our country''s borders
-- No more illegal aliens allowed to roam freely in our streets
-- No more federal Laws which are not authorized by The Constitution
-- No more federal erosion of State sovereignty
-- No more all-powerful federal government

They don''t call him "Dr. No" for no reason. The Doctor is in! Join us in this 21st Century political revolution at ronpaul2008.com

"Liberty, when it takes root, is a plant of rapid growth."
- George Washington

"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must...undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
- Mahatma Gandhi

[mcvet]

I''d say all those wacked out sheep who drive around with the bumper stickers "I''m Pro Life and I Vote" will have to do some adjusting huh? ROFLMAO As some of us have been trying to tell the simple minded for years, this whole "Christian COALITION" thing was nothing but a method to get those who fear change to sell their votes. I just feel sorry for the majority of these people who were sold the Snake Oil... they HAVE to know, with all the members of the Republican Party being caught like Senator Wide Stance and now this joke Robertson... they have to know they''ve been had. Sieg Heil and Amen

[lastdance4]

RE :
Law Offices
CBS News

Explain this Chronic ...Habitual...and Harassing - Political Spam -
Posted by : TrueProphet (aka KJVProphet.. aka LAProphet. aka NHProphet)

Throughout Each Day - Each Night - Every Day -
All Week long within most of the topics on
The CBS News Site

[cbs_oliver]

"Christian conservative" and "conservative christian" are not interchangeable descriptions.

The writer is sloppy to treat them as such.

[trueprophet]

Ron Paul can win the GOP nomination. If he does, I predict a landslide victory in November of 2008. Even the oddsmakers in Vegas aren''t willing to discount his chances. They''re currently giving him 3:1 odds to win against Hitlery if he gets the nomination. Romney, McCain and the globalist, sell-out Giuliani aren''t given anything better than a 35:1 chance of winning if they get the GOP nod. All it takes is for formerly apathetic individuals to get off the couch and nominate him in their local Republican primary or caucus process. Political parties are nothing more than tools. Those who read the manual and use the tools properly will win the nomination for their candidate. For the past 20 years, many good people have stayed at home and accepted whatever candidate they let others select for them. This year, those people are learning how to use their vote to bring about positive and long overdue political change in this country. To make a difference, you must participate in the Republican primary election or caucus process in your county, precinct or district. Nothing else matters. If we do this, we win. If not, we lose. The GOP has been suffering from declining participation for decades. Fewer than 10% of registered voters have ALL the power because they actually participate. Now the remaining 90% must surge to use their vote as a tool for bringing about positive change to our country. The time to act is now. The time for political revolution has come. The time for Ron Paul is NOW!

[trueprophet]

Most intelligent people can see right through CBS News'' bias against Ron Paul. "What about their polls?", you ask? As someone who''s been in the business, I know you can make a poll result look anyway you want. CBS News doesn''t even put Paul on the list of GOP candidates that pollees can choose from. Then they report he scores "0%" in their tally. You can see the man has support. He''s won ALL of the viewer call-in polls in ALL of the GOP debates he''s been in. People everywhere are in the street, and on the Net, supporting him like no other. And his campaign chest is growing daily, and not from huge corporate donations like the other GOP and Democratic party candidates get from defense contractors and bankers, but from grass root supporters who give what little they can afford--$5, $10, whatever. This is a 21st Century political revolution, my friends, and the Oligarchs or on the defensive. Ignore what the media network giants like CBS tell you. They sold-out to the status quo decades ago. This man has some major grass roots support across this country. Millions of Americans believe he is our only hope to restore peace, prosperity and freedom in this country. Presidential candidates with the personal integrity and proven track record of adherance to The Constitution Congressman, Paul has always demonstrated only come around only once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky. The stakes are too high. The cause of freedom is too important. Get off your couch, put the remote down and support Ron Paul!

[trueprophet]

Things people should know about Rudolph Giuliani: A Spanish company, Cintra-Zachry, which is owned by the King of Spain, is already building the North American SuperCorridor highway through the middle of our country thanks to NAFTA, and they''re going to get the tolls. Rodolph Giuliani''s Law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani represents that Spanish company. Another Giuliani business, Giuliani Capitol Advisers was once a partner of Cintra-Zachry, and actually owned the rights to collect tolls from the Indiana and Chicago sections of the SuperCorridor before Giuliani sold that interest recently to an Australian company called Macquarie. Bracewell & Giuliani represents some of the biggest multi-national oil, utility infrastructure and financial corporations both in the U.S. and abroad. With that have come the connections that Giuliani has been able to tap into for campaign donations, essential for his Presidential bid, not only in Texas but nationwide, as he has become the consummate NWO globalist. Particularly unnerving, given Giuliani''s personal experience on 9/11, is his defense of open borders at any cost while condoning the NAFTA Superhighway Corridor and by extension the North American Union, without the consent of the U.S. Congress or the will of the American people. We should have seen it coming when Mayor Giuliani enacted Special Order 40 in 1994, ordering NYC cops to stop checking the immigration status of suspects caught violating the Law. Vote for a REAL AMERICAN--Ron Paul.

[trueprophet]

All of these trade deals and world governmental organizations that all of the presidential candidates support (except Ron Paul), such as the ICC, NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA, are all major threat to our nation''s sovereignty. They transfer power from our government to unelected foreign elites. The ICC wants to try our soldiers as war criminals. Both the WTO and CAFTA could force Americans to get a prescription to take herbs and vitamins. The WTO has forced Congress to change our laws to meet their needs, and not our own. If anything, the WTO makes trade relations worse by giving foreign competitors a new way to attack U.S. jobs. The NAFTA superhighway, which is currently being built, is just one part of a plan to erase our borders and create the North American Union, a single nation State like the EU, out of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, with a new, unelected bureaucracy and money system. Forget about controlling immigration under the NAU scheme. There won''t be any borders anymore, or a free America. Our limited, constitutional government, will be gone forever. Let''s not forget the UN either. It wants to impose a direct Carbon Tax on us. Ron Paul successfully fought this move in Congress last year, but if we are going to stop ongoing attempts of this world government body to rule over us, we need someone in the White House who knows how to say "No." We must withdraw from any organizations or treaty that infringes upon our nation''s sovereignty. Vote AMERICA FIRST! Vote for Ron Paul.

[trueprophet]

What we need is a President who will 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. 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 the Middle-East, 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 of Republican Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. He''s a ten term Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. He''s an intellectual who''s published four books, three of which are devoted entirely to sound economics and one to foreign policy. He was raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania as a pious Lutheran, but now he attends a Baptist church. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. Whenever he recollects the helicopter pilots he treated as an Air Force Flight Surgeon (Captain) during the Vietnam War, a war which he now says was "totally unnecessary and illegal," he laments, "They were gung-ho. I''ve often thought about how many of those people never came back." Candidates with the high level of personal integrity and proven track record of adherence to The Constitution, Congressman Paul has always demonstrated only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky.

[trueprophet]

"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must...undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine

"Liberty, when it takes root, is a plant of rapid growth."
- George Washington

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
- Mahatma Gandhi

There is simply no other American politician like Ron Paul. He understands the ills of our nation and how to cure them. The Doctor is in!

[cfin5]

Who ever disagrees with with this endorsement, and has any financial interest in that "club", now is a real good time to sell it and do it soon.

[myidoncbs]

Every single one of these RP shills seems to call himself XYZProphet. What''s up with that? Do you expect us to believe your massive copy and paste spam attack is the work of a true prophet? I don''t think so!

[topprophet]

Ron Paul can win the GOP nomination. If he does, I predict a landslide victory in November of 2008. Even the oddsmakers in Vegas aren''t willing to discount his chances. They''re currently giving him 3:1 odds to win against Hitlery if he gets the nomination. Romney, McCain and the globalist, sell-out Giuliani aren''t given anything better than a 35:1 chance of winning if they get the GOP nod. All it takes is for formerly apathetic individuals to get off the couch and nominate him in their local Republican primary or caucus process. Political parties are nothing more than tools. Those who read the manual and use the tools properly will win the nomination for their candidate. For the past 20 years, many good people have stayed at home and accepted whatever candidate they let others select for them. This year, those people are learning how to use their vote to bring about positive and long overdue political change in this country. To make a difference, you must participate in the Republican primary election or caucus process in your county, precinct or district. Nothing else matters. If we do this, we win. If not, we lose. The GOP has been suffering from declining participation for decades. Fewer than 10% of registered voters have ALL the power because they actually participate. Now the remaining 90% must surge to use their vote as a tool for bringing about positive change to our country. The time to act is now. The time for political revolution has come. The time for Ron Paul is NOW!

[topprophet]

Most intelligent people can see right through CBS News'' bias against Ron Paul. "What about their polls?", you ask? As someone who''s been in the business, I know you can make a poll result look anyway you want. CBS News doesn''t even put him on the list of GOP candidates that pollees can choose from. Then they report he scores "0%" in their tally. You can see the man has support. He''s won ALL of the viewer call-in polls in ALL of the GOP debates he''s been in. People everywhere are in the street, and on the Net, supporting him like no other. And his campaign chest is growing daily, and not from huge corporate donations like the other GOP and Democratic party candidates get from defense contractors and bankers, but from grass root supporters who give what little they can afford--$5, $10, whatever. This is a 21st Century political revolution, my friends, and the Oligarchs or on the defensive. Ignore what the media network giants like CBS tell you. They sold-out to the status quo decades ago. This man has some major grass roots support across this country. Millions of Americans believe he is our only hope to restore peace, prosperity and freedom in this country. Presidential candidates with the personal integrity and proven track record of adherance to The Constitution Congressman, Paul has always demonstrated only come around only once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky. The stakes are too high. The cause of freedom is too important. Get off your couch, put the remote down and support Ron Paul!