Huckabee, Baptists, and “conservatives”

Bob Novak, no friend of Mike Huckabee, wrote about Huckabee and the conservative movement (aka "conservative resurgence") in the Southern Baptist Convention. We focused on interviews with two of the leaders without that movement, Richard Land and Judge Paul Pressler: The warmth in Texas and hostility in California reflects the Read more…

Romney’s speech

UPDATE: I’ve watched. The twitter traffic was positive for Romney. The comments that I have heard have not. Bill Bennett on CNN was pretty negative I thought. I’ve read the excerpts of Mitt Romney’s speech. They seem pretty banal. If this is all it is, is it worth it?

Is Romney closing on Mormonism?

Let me get this straight. A candidate has a religion problem. He is giving a big speech on religious liberty. And his supporters are dropping a movie, Article VI: The Movie. They also sent out a media advisory, the text of which is after the jump. But the text is the interesting part: (excuse the erratic formatting. It was in the text of the release)

Filmmaker Bryan Hall of Living Biography Media along with co-producer and former Assistant White House Press Secretary Reed Dickens will announce the release of the feature length documentary entitled, Article VI. The film is an intense discussion of the role of faith in politics intended to examine the national scrutiny of a candidate’s religion in the 2008 election

The filmmakers and representatives will hold a conference call with bloggers to discuss the film and its potential impact on voters in key primary states.  The film will be accompanied by an aggressive grassroots marketing campaign.    

So supporters of Romney intend to highlight his religion in the last several weeks of the campaign? When he has to win Iowa and South Carolina, two states whose nominating contests are dominated by evangelicals? In essence, going into Christmas, evangelicals are going to be presented with a large-scale discussion of Romney’s religion. How can that be good?

Advisory after the break (more…)

The environment among conservatives?

Last week, I criticized my friend Robert Bluey’s reading of Michael Gerson’s position on immigration. My criticism was, on a broader level, that the conservative movement has very little capacity to understand conservatives who disagree with it on principal. More specifically, when deeply held beliefs begin to come into conflict Read more…