leading Reps running away from Christers
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/233319.aspx
The Brody File David Brody CBN News Senior National Correspondent
September 18, 2007
Oh my…where do I begin? Let’s start with this. This was unlike any
debate I’ve ever seen. This one put the YouTube debate to shame in an
Evangelical sort of way. No snowman but it had its moments. It
started like this:
The Church of God choir sang “Why should God bless America?” Then
someone in the choir began reading from The Book of Chronicles and
finally an opening prayer. Could you imagine this sponsored on MSNBC
or any other cable outlet? The MSNBC Choir? Then maybe Brian Williams
would come out and read the Book of Chronicles followed by a prayer
by Chris Matthews.
It goes without saying that this debate centered on the biblical
values of traditional marriage, life of the unborn and the other
boilerplate issues that are part of the conservative pro-family agenda.
They even had a lightning speed round where candidates activated a
green light for a yes answer and a red light for a no answer. I was
waiting for Alex Trebek to step out and conduct this, maybe even say
a prayer. (He didn’t but Judge Roy Moore did without the Ten
Commandments in tow) Here were some of the questions candidates were
asked to respond to in a yes or no format: (there were a lot of green
lights)
Will you consider impeachment in cases of judicial activism?
Do you agree that multiculturalism is weakening American culture?
Will you de-fund Planned Parenthood?
Would you veto any legislation that re-institutes the fairness doctrine?
Would you nominate strict constructionist judges?
The debate was noteworthy because of who was not there. Absent were
Romney, Giuliani, Thompson and McCain. All of them had the dreaded
“scheduling conflict”. Let’s be honest. They weren’t there because
they didn’t want to be on the hot seat. And boy, let me tell
ya’…they would have been on that hot seat multiple times.
The candidates were asked to talk more about their personal
relationship with God. If the “Fab 4″ had shown up, who would have
taken that one first? You think Mitt Romney wants to get specific in
front of a predominately evangelical Christian audience? Giuliani,
Thompson and McCain are reluctant to talk about their faith so that’s
a non-starter. Instead, you had Mike Huckabee coming up with this
line: “The greatest thing in my life was coming to know Jesus
Christ.” Cha-ching!
It’s too bad the four leading GOP candidates didn’t show up. I
understand that campaign advisors were probably discussing the
‘potential upside” and instead found more of a downside. They’re
probably envisioning the General Election ad by the Democratic
National Committee where they’re seen at an “ultra right wing event”
being caught in a situation where they may say something they regret.
These GOP candidates don’t want to have on the fence moderates and
Independents abandon them in droves if they’re seen as an “ultra
right wing guy”. (Though I don’t think Giuliani and McCain have to
worry about that) But let’s face it: skipping this event is a gamble
to a certain extent, especially for Thompson and Romney. Both of them
are competing hard for the ’social conservative” crowd. Some
conservative pro-family voters very well may see this as a slap in
the face. Scheduling conflicts won’t fly with this crowd. How much
will it haunt them? Let’s remember here, Thompson and Romney are
competing for the same slice of the pie. If Huckabee, Paul, Brownback
and others can peel off votes from them, not only does it hurt
Thompson and Romney, it really helps the socially moderate Giuliani.
Call me in January.
Oh by the way, did I tell you who was there? Besides the regulars
like Brownback, Huckabee, Hunter, Paul and Tancredo, there were two
others. John Cox (no not Wally Cox or Courtney Cox) showed up. Who’s
John Cox you ask? He’s the guy running for President who has less
than 1% support so he wasn’t invited to previous debates. But he had
podium space last night. And then there was Alan Keyes. Yes, that
Alan Keyes. He’s baaaaaaaaaack! He’s running for President and he was
in mid-season form last night. Just go to your favorite Alan Keyes
diatribe, cue it up and you’ll get the idea.