McCain Scores A Bump From Saddleback

Politico: Republican Has Taken Important Step Toward Shoring Up Support Among Christian Conservatives

(The Politico)  This story was written by Alexander Burns.

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He clashed with their leaders in his 2000 campaign. He struggled to gain their votes during the 2008 primaries. And he still doesn’t spend much time talking about the issues they consider most important.

But after Saturday night’s televised forum at the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., John McCain has taken an important step toward shoring up his support among the Republican Party’s Christian conservative base.

Even as speculation swirls that McCain could choose a running mate who supports abortion rights - a move that would surely anger Christian conservatives - the presumptive Republican nominee is enjoying a lift from his performance in last weekend’s forum.

“We’re getting tons of phone calls left and right,” said George Andrews, the executive director of the Orange County, Calif., Republican Party. “Overall, people have been calling and saying John McCain did an outstanding job.”

The forum, hosted by Rick Warren, the pastor of the 22,000-member Saddleback Church and author of the best-selling book "The Purpose-Driven Life," featured back-to-back, hour-long interviews with both McCain and his general election opponent, Barack Obama, on subjects ranging from abortion and judicial nominations to personal moral failures.

Several conservative activists identified McCain’s response to the question, “What point is a baby entitled to human rights?” as his finest moment of the evening.

McCain replied quickly: “At the moment of conception,” and continued: “I have a 25-year pro-life record in the Congress, in the Senate. And as president of the United States, I will be a pro-life president.”

“He was just right out of the box,” said Lynda Bell, the president of Florida Right to Life. “McCain was so incredibly decisive and he was so clear in his answers. There was no gray area.”

“They feel like this is the start of John McCain’s coming out, in terms of embracing the conservative evangelicals,” Andrews said, comparing the event to the 2000 primary debate in which George W. Bush named Jesus Christ as the philosopher who had influenced him most.

According to Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Christian conservatives were especially eager to hear this message from McCain.

“I think they needed to hear it and they needed to hear it when the question was asked in that way, that protections need to come at the moment of conception,” Land said. “That removes all doubt.”

Obama, on the other hand, avoided a clear response: “I think that whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.”

“That was an evasion that didn’t work,” said Land.

McCain has a steadfastly conservative voting record on many social issues, but does not talk about these topics on the campaign trail as often, or as enthusiastically, as he does national security and terrorism.

Since June, McCain has not given a single speech focused on social issues, and in the public remarks posted on his website he has referred to God just eight times and religious faith, more broadly, only once.

Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, said Christian conservatives needed to hear McCain talk about social issues to get enthusiastic about his candidacy.

“Most people, they don’t do this for a living, they don’t study a candidate’s record, and even when they see a record, it has to be backed up by the candidate talking about it and making it important,” Perkins said.

Indeed, in a Pew survey released July 10, 38 percent of those surveyed could not identify the Arizona senator’s stance on the issue (thesame percentage could not identify Barack Obama’s position).
The importance of McCain’s performance at the Saddleback Church, then, was to show religious conservatives that the candidate genuinely cared about their issues.

“People were, before, just kind of wringing their hands thinking, what kind of mess do we have here, what kind of choice do we have,” Perkins said. “I think he stopped the… ambivalence that was out there toward John McCain.”

Andrews agreed, explaining: “When they see McCain’s actual position and him talking about it, it makes a difference, instead of looking at roll call tallies.”

“McCain’s performance was so genuine and so real,” Bell added. “This became clearly, no longer that, ‘This is the best of the two choices,’ and moved from that over to, ‘This is a great, great candidate that we need to get behind.’”

Some conservatives were less impressed by McCain’s performance. Bob Enyart, a director of Colorado Right to Life, called McCain’s anti-abortion statements “a stunning contradiction to his entire political career,” and criticized the presumptive GOP nominee for failing to support Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker’s proposed Life at Conception Act, which would attempt to extend legal protection to prenatal life.

“Either he had a heartfelt conversion on Saturday, or this is more manipulative electioneering,” Enyart said.”

For most religious conservatives, however, McCain’s performance stood out as especially praiseworthy in contrast to that of Obama.

“What Saturday night provided was the closest view of the contrast between the two candidates that we’ve seen,” Perkins said, adding that he found Obama’s performance meandering and evasive.

Obama has trailed McCain among white evangelical voters throughout the campaign - in June, a Pew poll showed him losing that group 61 percent to 25 percent - but he has reached out to these voters on subjects such as faith-based initiatives in the hope of winning a larger slice of that demographic group than previous Democratic presidential candidates.

But Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Christian Alliance, said the general election is bringing clarity to the race for social conservatives, many of whom backed candidates other than McCain in the Republican primary.

“When you have eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve candidates running, it takes people a while to get enthused,” Scheffler said. “When you have a choice between someone you agree with on 80 percent of issues and someone who agreed with you on zero, the choice becomes crystal clear.”

McCain’s work courting Christian conservatives, however, is far from complete. With his party’s convention approaching and the announcement of a vice presidential candidate slated for Aug. 29, McCain may need to take advantage of these opportunities to keep reaching out to this key Republican constituency.

Land mentioned McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican convention as an opportunity for him to build excitement among Christian conservatives about his candidacy.

“You’ve got to gin up the base,” Land said, suggesting that McCain should make social issues a central element of his convention address and adding: “I think he will come a lot closer to sealing the deal if he picks a pro-life running mate.”

Indications have surfaced this week that McCain might deviate from party orthodoxy by choosing an abortion-rights supporter, such as former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge or Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, as his running mate. On Sunday, Ridge told "Fox News Sunday" that he thought the GOP would be open to a vice presidential candidate who supports abortion rights.

“The party will just implode” if McCain makes such a choice, Perkins warned. “[Social conservatives] are going to have to know that he’s totally committed to these issues, and that’s going to require a running mate that has an even better ability to communicate with the base than John McCain has.”

[gop_fornever]

life begins when the baby leaves the *** and takes a dump. every christian knows that.

[gop_fornever]

that''s ****/v a g i n a!

[averjane]

I think McCain is a closet Democrat but at least he is not afraid to speak the truth about abortion and securing America against terrorism. We have to take the bad with the good, but with Obama, he clearly has no intentions of standing firm on these issues and does not have what it takes to run a country like America. He represents everything that is wrong with this society and I can''t stand him.

%u201CHe was just right out of the box,%u201D said Lynda Bell, the president of Florida Right to Life. %u201CMcCain was so incredibly decisive and he was so clear in his answers. There was no gray area.%u201D
-----
That''s the line most cultists take. Personally, I thought John was "rode hard and put away wet."

[steeepe]

If the evangelical nuts support McBush, all the more reason not to vote for him. America is now a country of delusional fools -- goodbye to the Enlightenment and our standing in the future. The future belongs to other countries, we''re toast. No more critical thinking -- why not just drop out of high school now and be part of the wonderful "service" economy. Oops, I forgot, that''s been outsourced to India.

[realpatriot1]

badaxmofo,

How original! Don''t you have any new material?

[mrtutto]

It''s good to know that John McCain has the answer about at what point a baby has rights, when not even the Pope can answer that question.

[xyno-2009]

I know because I used to work for a "family planning center" and believe me the bank and credit card processing deposits on a daily basis were tens of thousands of dollars from so-called CHRISTIANS.

Posted by patsy_owens at 12:19 PM : Aug 20, 2008

=========================

What, was there a big "C" on their credit cards? LOL

[xyno-2009]

It''''s good to know that John McCain has the answer about at what point a baby has rights, when not even the Pope can answer that question.

Posted by mrtutto at 12:22 PM : Aug 20, 2008

=======================

That''s because the Pope only has experience with immaculate conceptions. grin

[tx2democrats]

the story will break later....

McCain cheats on Religious Forum.
(lines being fed via blackberry
to McCain in limo).

this is so sacrolage.

[navymom21]

The people who bought his story about the cross in the sand apparently don''t realize that he stole the story outright from the Gulug Archipelago, which he has quoted before. He is one of those people who repeats a story so often that he believes it''s true. Yes, he is a POW veteran who endured the unimaginable, and deserves our respect for that. Period. Otherwise, as a mother of an active military person, he scares me to death.

[getcentered]

John McCain is no maverick

McCain''s recent assault on Congress for taking a vacation in August instead of passing a bill allowing for offshore drilling seems less than genuine when you consider that for the past 27 years John McCain routinely took advantage of what is viewed as the "dog days" of August in Washington. That''s when Congress normally takes the entire month of August off and returns to their home districts to reconnect with their constituents.

Maybe he forget about this tradition that he took advantage of the past 27 years, undoubtedly using his private jet to vacation around the world while he played lawn bowl -- talk about elitist. No matter how he used his vacation time, he never objected to the traditional vacation until this election cycle.

[mr2258]

One reason that McCain scored big is that Obama admitted to using illegal drugs.People do not want an illegal drug user as president.

[getcentered]

Republicans don''t want to oppose their own monster which they have created.

Fundamental evangelical activists, the Bush family and the GOP:

Three good reasons to appreciate abortion rights.

[andylance1]

In Star Wars we had Aarraba the Hut - Now we have Obama the Hut.

The Italian edition of Vanity Fair said that it had found George Hussein Onyango Obama living in a hut in a ramshackle town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Mr Obama, 26, the youngest of the presidential candidate''s half-brothers, spoke for the first time about his life, which could not be more different than that of the Democratic contender.

"No-one knows who I am," he told the magazine, before claiming: "I live here on less than a dollar a month."

[DCropp]

Look for a drop in McCain''s numbers as reports of McCain talking with Hillary''s brother are reported.

How much of McCain''s soul has been sold to the Devil?

[getcentered]

Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama

"Army Specialist Jay Navas contributed $250 while deployed in Iraq, but it wasn''t over the Internet. "It took some effort to get that check. I had my mom send me my checkbook and I walked to the post office in Camp Liberty in Baghdad with an envelope addressed to Barack Obama in Chicago, Illinois," he said. "He was right on Iraq long when others were jumping into the sea like lemmings, and that''s hard to do. We''re soldiers and we respect courage."


http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/08/troops-deployed-abroad-give-61.html

[walt1944-2009]

It has been learned that John "McBush" McCain has taken the lead over Obama in one poll by 5 points, and is close to taking the lead in another. Neocon Fascist Nazi Republicans are overjoyed that the reason for this is McCain''s "performance" at the Saddleback church, which apparently now styles itself as a "king-maker"!

Of course, the fact that McCain, who was supposed to be in a "cone of silence" NEVER was in such a mythical place, but was "coached" on the questions before-hand is an issue the neocons refuse to address!

After all, we have had 8 years of a rich, liar, cheat, and supposed "reformed" drunkard in the White House, so what is another 8 years with a "wrinkly, white-haired" rich, liar, and cheat!

Ain''t politics wonderful, especially if you are a neocon Fascist Nazi Republican???

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!!
sig heil, "SURRRRRGE!" McCain!!!!!

[dnsallday]

People do not want an illegal drug user as president.

Posted by mr2258 at 12:49 PM :
*******************************************************
Actually a lot of people prefer somebody who is honest about experimenting with drugs as a teenager, than a dishonorable liar like George Bush or McCain, who don''t have the courage to tell the truth.

I do realize though that many conservatives don''t consider honesty and integrity worthy values and they proved that by overwhelmingly voting for George w. Bush. A weak and a shallow failure of a man. And as much as they want to pretend otherwise, McCain is a clone of George Bush.
The only difference was George Bush was younger and although he did need to get permission from Karl Rove before he could do or say anything, he didn''t need a personal nursemaid to wipe his drool like McCain''s nursemaid Lieberman does for him.

[mr2258]

BS--The military does not support Obama.I live in a biG military town.Obama will get very little military vote.Where do they come up with this BS.

[jmurrieta1]

"%u201CThey feel like this is the start of John McCain%u2019s coming out, in terms of embracing the conservative evangelicals,%u201D


As soon as that sinks in, pretty much everyone who has a brain and can think will be voting Obama.

We''ve had enough of the snake oil salesmen. Let those who think religion is so wonderful move to Iran.

[jmurrieta1]

"The military does not support Obama.I live in a biG military town.Obama will get very little military vote.Where do they come up with this BS. "--Posted by mr2258


Campaign donations from the combat zone favor Obama over McCain 6:1.

What you got are the desk jockies.

[xyno-2009]

Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama

Posted by getcentered at 01:01 PM : Aug 20, 2008

=============================

That''s because they''re a bunch of uneducated idiots according to John Kerry. LOL

[dnsallday]

They feel like this is the start of John McCain%u2019s coming out, in terms of embracing the conservative evangelicals,%u201D


As soon as that sinks in, pretty much everyone who has a brain and can think will be voting Obama.

We''''ve had enough of the snake oil salesmen. Let those who think religion is so wonderful move to Iran.

Posted by jmurrieta1
***********************************************************
That is why the right wingers spend so much time going after the ''low information voters''. George Bush and karl Rove made fun of them and called them the most dependable suckers a Republican could hope for and they will prove just as dependable for McCain, once he gets a bit more coaching from karl Rove on how to suck them in.

[steeepe]

How many times has McBush been married? And how did he behave towards his ill wife? Did he graduate at the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy? Has he repeatedly lied about his previous positions, which are pretty different from his present positions? Didn''t he once say that personal ambition was the only thing that motivated him to want to be President? How may funerals for discarded embryos has he attended? If you want more of what we''ve had for 8 years, vote for McBush. If the President''s beliefs on conception are the biggest, most critical things for the country, vote for McBush and don''t complain as things continue to deteriorate in the future. If your concerns are broader, consider Obama.

[mr2258]

NAS Jax-Mayport-Cecil field-Kings Bay Sub Base.Many military people are here.Most will vote for McCain.I will say this.Obama will get most of the black vote.Not all.

[semperfi2008]

Borak Hussein Obama is all smoke and mirrors. There are legitimate doubts concerning his exact birthplace, perhaps not in the USA or its territories. If this turns out to have any substance, he would certainly be disqualified to be president.

[dnsallday]

What our media seems to either ignore or believes isn''t relevant is McCain''s own words in his own political memoir describing why he ran for president in 2000:

"I didn''t decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism.
In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. . . . In truth, I''d had the ambition for a long time."

[getcentered]

%u2554%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2566%u2557
%u2560%u25C0ABORT 3RD TERM FOR THE DARK SIDE%u25B6%u2563
%u255A%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u2569%u255D

[dnsallday]

Obama will get most of the black vote.Not all.

Posted by mr2258
***********************************************************
The Democratic nominee will always get most of the black votes. How many black people are going to vote for the party of bigots?

[dnsallday]

Borak Hussein Obama is all smoke and mirrors. There are legitimate doubts concerning his exact birthplace, perhaps not in the USA or its territories. .

Posted by semperfi2008
*****************************************************

The only people having doubts about this are the extremely low information voters and the willfully ignorant.

[getcentered]

Cryos

There are many reasons we need to get rid of our country''s inveterate addiction to oil........and to start thinking renewable.......... jobs, environment, energy independence from tyrannical leaders of the world.

Or we can just keep it the same and buy gas to build the roads and bridges in Canada instead, or help Saudi Arabia buy some more missiles for their army..........and continue to produce crappy gas guzzling trucks that no one can afford........while watching Toyota and Honda build and sell the cars Americans are increasingly interested in buying...............

We can continue to pay to inefficiently transmit electricity great distances from coal plants................while we dig and drill frivolously to catch up with demand for power, scaring our back yards with huge holes and stinky refineries.........

It''s about time...........and slowly but surely..........the obstruction to this fight "Republicans", are a dwindling few.

"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

[semperfi2008]

Anyone who has served in the military knows that you don''t send an inexperienced young 2nd Lieutenant into a firefight and expect anything but disaster. Obama is just that and the active duty military and veterans know this and will not support him over McCain.

[whyafghan]

The Democratic nominee will always get most of the black votes. How many black people are going to vote for the party of bigots?
-----------------------------
Posted by truthmatterz

As Chris Rock stated years ago about blacks - just give them some chicken and they even will follow you into the water.

[dnsallday]

These type of voters exist in both parties. Look at all the greed politics liberals play to the lazy, uneducated bottom feeders. "I''''ll tax rich people and give you $1000", "I''''ll give you free health care" "I''''ll pay you more for having kids" etc etc.

Posted by Cryos at 01
********************************************************* You seem to be one of the people I was referring to. Why don''t you educate yourself instead of spending your time regurgitating this fabricated garbage?

[dnsallday]

If you look at a lot of liberal policies such as affirmative action (now not when it started) they can be construed as condescending and racist since they seem to assume white people do better than others and others need more help.

Posted by Cryos at
********************************************************

and conservatives have another name for it. Called Legacy, realizing that even though the parents may have been bright their offspring, like George Bush and John mcCain would need Affirmative action because they figured they were too stupid to get anywhere on their own. And they were correct about that.

[getcentered]

Cryos = tool

Conservatives died and left only ugliness behind.

There are folks I know who voted for Bush......but they are independent thinkers who say Obama is looking like the better choice for us in Nov.

The so called Republicans I hear these days are usually loud mouth freaks that can''t get anyone to listen to them, so they stay at home and lose touch with society, staring endlessly into the abyss of propaganda from Faux News and Rush Limp-dik.

What happened to Republicans?

It is a movement that draws its inspiration from towering figures: Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Burke. It stands for caution in foreign adventures, fiscal sobriety and a profound respect for tradition.

Today%u2019s conservatism is a caricature of that movement:

It embraces pointless wars, runs up a vast debt, and trashes the Constitution. Selling out their principles for power, abandoning deeply seated American values and traditions simply because someone on "their side" demanded that they do so, conservatives have made a deal with the devil that has reduced their movement to an empty, ends-obsessed shell.

How did the party of Lincoln end up marching under the banner of Tom DeLay and Rush Limbaugh, *** Cheney and Ann Coulter?

[dnsallday]

As Chris Rock stated years ago about blacks - just give them some chicken and they even will follow you into the water.
-
Posted by WhyAfghan
******************************************************
I was wondering where you low information voters get your news from.

[dnsallday]

Fortunately there are still enough people that have self respect and believe in personal responsibility to counter the lazy and uneducated with no hope for themselves in the future just sitting around looking for someone else to solve their problems and give them a handout.

Posted by Cryos
***********************************************************
One more point for Karl Rove, he has got another one suckered into the fold of sheeple

[semperfi2008]

As more and more revelations come out about the "messiah" and the voters get to know him better, he will be lucky to only trail McCain by six points. It will probably drop to 15 by November 1st.

[mr2258]

truthmatterz---You need to stop buying all the BS that the media is putting out.

[getcentered]

Cryos

Who said I was here to entertain you?

[getcentered]

Karl Rove should get the death sentence.

[mr2258]

Why do you guys come down on Rick Warren.Obama gave the answers he wanted to give.

[getcentered]

In 2006,

Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours Monday at Palm Beach International Airport after he returned on his private plane from a child *** tour in the Dominican Republic.

Customs officials found Viagra in his bag, but his name wasn''t on the prescription.

[semperfi2008]

jMcGilvray

Yes, I agree this country has a lot of problems but I have not seen one shred of evidence that Obama knows how to fix them. As far as I can tell, the only platform he has is "change" and change for changes sake is rarely good. The Russians wanted change and got Stalin. The Germans wanted "change" and got Hitler. The voters should carefully consider their choices before casting that ballot.

[getcentered]

semperfi2008

Satlin?

Hitler?

Please......

Are you a toe tapper too?

Man.....America doesn''t need anymore toe tappers.

[getcentered]

How could McCain could say he was "honored and humbled" to have Bush"s endorsement?

Lets recap:

9/11 Terrorist attack..

The WORLD gets behind the USA to support whatever action, against those who caused this attack..

Bush declares WAR on the Taliban in Afghanistan..

Allies of the USA unite, and go into Afghanistan ready to kick some a**..

Bush declares WAR on Iraq..

The world allies question this decision, and are chastised by the Bush admin for doing so..

The world allies remove support in dismay at the decisions of the Americans to attack Iraq..

The US stands alone in Iraq...

Americans die in an unnecessary war in Iraq and the cause of the 9/11 terrorist attacks are lost in the minds of Americans........................

Can we say digress????? Just say it with me once....I found a whole new meaning......

Digressssss.......

[dnsallday]

THE PURPOSE DRIVEN CHEAT

This campaign has now deteriorated to such an extent that it%u2019s now sullied the name, the reputation, and the operation of an esteemed religious leader.
The whole sordid episode has now transformed Pastor Rick Warren into just another guy I don%u2019t want to trust anymore.

I won%u2019t bother demanding full accountability of McCain%u2019s people. I am profoundly uncertain about their ability or willingness to come clean if something really is as fishy as this smells. After all, the McCain campaign is loaded with schemers and corner cutters, Rovians, lobbyists and other special interest rogues trying to fly under the radar, and holdovers from the Bush administration. Not a whole lot to recommend them for honesty and/or openness.

One would hope a man like Rick Warren would be above such things, a mega-preacher whose word and motivations are pure gold, beyond all reproach. I%u2019d like to hear Warren address this scandal more fully, and in much greater depth than a casual extended chit-chat with Larry King would offer.

And John McCain can ill afford this, because of the blanks it starts to fill in rather disturbingly on the character issue as he strives to convince America that he%u2019s up to the job of president.

We all lose if this particular chapter winds up being titled %u201CThe Purpose Driven Cheat.%u201D

[getcentered]

Cryos

Who said I was a "liberal"?

Only you and the other Toe Tapping Republican Propagandist TOOLs like you.

How is it down there between Rush Limpdiks sweaty legs? Smell that?

Is that what deceit smells like?

...has it become you?