Democrats and faith: Still unfathomable
There's been much ink spilled this campaign about how leading Democrats are trying to "level the praying field" (as Time magazine put it) by talking up their personal faith and reaching out to religious voters, especially evangelical Christians.
So how are evangelical voters responding to those pitches from the left?
We haven't the foggiest.
In Iowa, surveys asked Republican caucus-goers about their faith and found a groundswell of evangelical support for Mike Huckabee. But the pollsters didn't talk faith with Democratic voters.
In New Hampshire, an extensive exit poll of voters did ask Democrats what religion they practice and how often they attend services. But Democrats were not asked, as their GOP counterparts were, "Would you describe yourself as a born-again or evangelical Christian?"
So no one really knows how many evangelicals might have been attracted to Barack Obama's personal testimony about accepting Christ as his savior, or Hillary Clinton's talk ...
about her vibrant prayer life, or John Edwards' efforts to frame poverty as a moral issue.
In past elections, as many as a third of self-described evangelicals have voted Democratic, so this is a potentially significant bloc.
"Asking only Republicans about their religion shows that the media is still stuck on the outdated and false notion that evangelical Christians are the GOP's political property," says Katie Barge, a spokeswoman for the liberal group Faith in Public Life. "Evangelicals have broadened their agenda to include care for the planet, the poor and the stranger, and as a result are increasingly independent politically."
Christianity Today, a leading evangelical magazine, echoes the complaint on its blog: "This was supposed to be the year the Democrats got religion. Too bad somebody forgot to tell the pollsters."
So what do we know about the Democrats and the faithful?
In New Hampshire, Obama scored well among voters who said they attend religious services at least once a week. (He drew 38% of their votes, compared with 31% for Clinton and 20% for Edwards.) Those who never attend services also favored Obama over Clinton (39% to 35%). She did better among the middle group -- voters who attend services every now and then. Clinton also had a significant edge over Obama among Catholic voters (44% to 27%.)
On the Republican side, white evangelicals were fairly evenly split among Huckabee, Mitt Romney and John McCain -- a somewhat surprising outcome given that Huckabee, an ordained Baptist preacher, considers that group his loyal base. Catholics divided evenly between McCain and Romney, with Huckabee way behind.
-- Stephanie Simon
I can tell you this...
Evangelicals will be more open to Barack Obama or John Edwards than they will to Hillary Clinton.
The woman comes across as a robot. It's creepy. It's instinctually creepy to any student of human nature.
In addition, I am personally infuriated that Clinton's "human" moment of voice cracking is something we should find respectful. She's tearing up about the campaign being "hard" and "having to overcome a lot of obstacles." Give me a fricken break! She has more money, more the establishment, and more of the powers-that-be behind her than any other candidate. She doesn't have it "hard". She's been losing from the advantage point.
What if Edwards, Obama, or Huckabee had their voice crack and fight off tears while talking about the difficulties of their campaign?
She is so calculating. When it is to her advantage she plays the role of the revolutionary female. When it is also to her advantage, she complains about being "picked" on by male candidates when she 1) Is the leading candidate and 2) Has a huge amount of baggage from the Clinton era.
What is up with this person?
Yeah, she's intelligent. So what? I don't want someone who almost cries because she's fighting for first place in a small state running our military or dealing with global political crises.
It is ridiculous.
I've been a Democrat all my life and I can honestly say that electing Hillary Clinton would be equally as bad for this nation as re-electing George W. Bush to a third term (if that was Constitutionally possible).
I beg the L.A. Times to reconsider playing with kids gloves when it comes to coverage of Hillary Clinton.
Dynasties are not Democracies.
Posted by: Jon K. | January 09, 2008 at 02:07 PM
Only american voters could fall for a fake-crying president candidate...in the rest of the world we call it a "show", and a show, which should not be possible in "the real world"...all done with the purpose of taking America by the heart !! And not with the brain...
Some of us think, that the Lewinsky successor is indeed LYING to the american population. And lying because she is too perfect and too rich for the Democratic Party (and the middle class) and at the same time too conscious about the fact, that she wants to be the first female president (she could make history !)...because of her own personal ambitions...and NOT because she REALLY want and is capable of CHANGING the US situation...
We have seen it before, some of us, and I really find that "mrs low thickhead" is manipulating with You americans...
When I travel the world I meet MANY people who are sick and tired of "the old politicians" in America...the ones on top of power...You are killing people everyday, manipulating with the media and not worthy to be on the hill-top... You are the ones, who make our world UNSAFE...and You are the ones who claim to belong to.."the white & good ones"...
On behalf of ALL the world : Let the american voters vote wisely...and NOT...with heart...alone...
Yours
A world citizen, living outside the US
Posted by: Kristian Mark | January 09, 2008 at 02:09 PM
What does religion have to do with politics? I thought we were about "freedom of religion AND freedom FROM religion". It's all hypocritical anyway...the big so-called christians are the meanest and most hypocritcal of all. Why all this pandering to the religious right? What about the rest of us who haven't been brainwashed? What's with these people who find it necessary to declare "I'm a Christian"...who cares? I find this pandering to be insulting to my intelligence and completely un-American. Sick to death of religion. Not all of us are reactionary, knee-jerk robots.
Posted by: Pam, Long Beach, California | January 09, 2008 at 02:45 PM
Pam, I agree with you in some sense - what does religion have to do with politics?
And I'm glad someone is figuring out that the polls/media/candidates assume that only Republicans are religious. What the...?
There is a new film coming out next week - Article VI: Faith.Politics.America. examining this very thing. http://www.ArticleVITheMovie.com
Posted by: Sara | January 10, 2008 at 10:41 AM