McCain having trouble getting the Jesus voters

[cbc5g]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080717/D91VMU7O0.html

Nevertheless, they support McCain over Obama by 62 percent to 18 percent. Although the AP-Yahoo News Poll is of all adults, not the smaller, more energized group of likely voters, McCain's figures lag behind Bush's showing among white evangelical Christian voters in the 2004 election, when exit polls indicated 78 percent supported him.

In some parts of Iowa, overall turnout in 2004 was 20 percentage points higher than 2000, virtually all of it an energized Bush vote.

A prosperous hamlet of 6,300, Sioux Center is home to 17 churches, 13 of them with the word "Reformed" in their name, a sign of a strong evangelical presence. In 2004, 16,000 people in the county voted, 14,000 of them for Bush.

Carl Zylstra is president of Dordt College in Sioux Center, a small private school that bills itself as "what quality Christian higher education is all about." Also the host of a weekly radio talk show about politics and everything else on the minds of folks, Zylstra hears quiet doubts, far different from the passion Bush inspired.

"George Bush has a very compelling personal story, a very compelling religious experience and in their hearts they believed he was a man who loved the same Lord they did," said Zylstra. "They might not agree with all his policies, but they trusted him that when the chips were down, he would do the right thing. McCain is not a man who incites the same passion."

Dave Mulder, a retired teacher from Northwestern College in nearby Orange City, another private Christian college, also knows something about local politics and spent a stint in the state Legislature.

"I think people here genuinely believe that George Bush and his Christian faith was very sincere," said Mulder. "People have said that when they talked to him, he took time to let them know how much that Christian belief meant. For McCain, I just don't think there's that same enthusiasm."

McCain has work to do among religious conservatives, says Don Kass, a Republican activist in nearby Plymouth County.

"He needs to work quite a bit harder than he has to get those folks," said Kass. "And I say those folks because I'm one of them. He needs to give them something that motivates them to get to the polls."

Religious conservatives are an important constituency in this swing state that voted for Bush by 12,000 votes in 2004 and a growing force in state Republican politics. Republicans recently ousted Steve Roberts, a 20-year member of the Republican National Committee, and replaced him with Steve Scheffler, head of the Iowa Christian Alliance.

The other RNC seat went to Kim Lehman, head of the Iowa Right to Life Committee, and both campaigned on forcing the party to showcase its hard-line opposition to abortion and gay rights. Scheffler says he backs McCain but concedes there isn't much enthusiasm among religious conservatives.

"It's not where it should be, but there's potential there," said Scheffler. "I've encouraged the McCain campaign, I've told them several times that I would be more than willing to put together a small group of people the campaign needs to have a dialogue with."

The balancing act McCain must walk nationally is firming up his conservative base while reaching out to independents. Scheffler warned the equation is different in Iowa and throughout the Midwest.

"To succeed in Iowa, it's because you have a big turnout of self-identified evangelicals," said Scheffler. "I don't see that scenario changing."

Randy Feenstra, another Plymouth County activist, doesn't see these voters turning to Democrat Barack Obama, but he worries that they "just won't vote."

Top Republicans acknowledge the problem and vow to ease concerns. On a recent visit to Iowa, Republican National Chairman Mike Duncan delivered a pep talk about McCain. "For a public figure, he's a very private man," Duncan said, but he promised the campaign would offer a clearer view of McCain as a person "as we move through this fall."

But some religious conservatives wonder if McCain even has the potential to stir their passion. "Some said he was the safe alternative," Zylstra, the college president and talk show host, said. "He just doesn't ignite the fire."

Sharing regular morning coffee here with Droog and Rens, Jake Kieft, who backed Bush with enthusiasm, shrugged his shoulders over the campaign.

"I'm hanging on the fence, I really am," Kieft said.

[Cha]

1. Poor gullibles who believed

bush.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Bush is a better conman than McNutso.

People think he'd be cool to drink a beer with. People think he believes ehat they believe. People should count their fingers after shaking hands with him.

[patrice]

3. Disembowelled Iraqi children, their guts crushed into the dirt of destroyed homes are okay with

these folks, 'cause they "love the Lord" and hate Homosexuals. Their problem with Crash must be about something else.

[cbc5g]

4. McCain doesn't speak about his faith...must piss off the evangelicals

[rpannier]

5. David Mulder is an idiot

"I think people here genuinely believe that George Bush and his Christian faith was very sincere," said Mulder. "People have said that when they talked to him, he took time to let them know how much that Christian belief meant. For McCain, I just don't think there's that same enthusiasm."

[SwampG8r]

6. no wonder the xfiles was cancelled

that mulder is a dumbass

[AlinPA]

7. He'll start waving a cross, bashing minorities and waving bigger flags. That will bring them out

to vote for him. A few hugs with Robertson and Dobson and he's OK with them.