Issues: It is starting to look like the next election will be focused mostly on religion.

[AlinPA]

It is currently the front-line battle zone for the R candidates with Huckabee and Romney fighting it out for attention. The others are drooping in polls and are not shouting their bible quotes and belief in Jesus as loudly. Whoever gets their nomination will have to continue to play out their religious views to try to capture the independent voters who are looking for religion in their candidates. Democrats will continue to go with issues around war, health care, jobs, environment, our standing in the world. But are we looking at a "Christian" evangelical-fundamentalist election centered around hatred for gay people, evolution and prayer in schools?

[shraby]

1. Thats one of the reasons the GOP will

be history after the next election.

[blondeatlast]

2. The "divide and conquer" strategfy is in full force already--just look at GD today.

They've got a crappy hopeful field--but if this stuff keeps up, it won't matter.

[AlinPA]

3. You are referring to the Huckabee-romney thing?

[blondeatlast]

4. Actaully, no. I'm referring to the "them vs. us" mentality that seems to have

overwhelmed GD in the past couple of days.

Where's the talk of the torture tapes and the NIE and the WaPo's sorry ass propaganda piece??

Buried under three feet of spew at each other.

Sorry, I'm in a pissy mood over this, I really am. :mad:

[AlinPA]

6. It has been bothering me too.

[MedleyMisty]

10. A list of "Me toos" isn't all that entertaining

I imagine most of us are aware of that stuff and agree about it, so what is there to discuss besides listing the facts and linking sources and agreeing with each other? And yeah, we should be doing that, but I think it's okay if we also argue about religion and prejudice and stuff from time to time. I always learn a lot about other people and get new perspectives from these sorts of things.

[AlinPA]

11. OK.

[brazos121200]

5. The country isn't going fundamentalist. There is a considerable

minority of the population, maybe as much as 35 or 40 percent who consider themselves evangelicals and who seek out and support people they consider evangelicals or fundamentalists. The large majority of Americans, even religious ones, do not consider a person's faith as the primary reason to vote for or against them. Huckabee represents the worst of the American evangelical movement and Romney represents a part of the more moderate or at least less fundamentalist religious sentiment. If Huckabee wins the Repub nomination it will bring down the party in a big way. To be sure, he will have the 35% of voters who will vote for him just for his "religion", but will have little appeal to anyone else. Romney is another matter. His Mormonism might just become "chic" and help him into the White House. We should all hope and pray that Huckabee does extremely well in the upcoming primaries, I want the Democratic candidate, whoever he or she is, to win big next year.

[AlinPA]

7. Agree on Romney, but Huckabee has that folksiness that could get votes from the

moderate religious. 40% is a lot of voters. A couple of issues like guns and taxes and Huckabee could win, of course largely because of the religion vote.

[anakie]

12. by your maths

35% is usually a pretty good figure to win a presidential campaign. It has happened before and no reason for it not to happen again.

Why? Given that anywhere between 30% and 50% of Americans will NOT vote they don't need too much more than 35% to win.


Peace

[Breeze54]

8. I don't care what the gop tries to make a wedge issue.

Fuck them!!

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Oh, I hope not. I don't want to listen to a bunch of theocratic blowards.

[msongs]

13. obama romney and huckabee duking it out for the most holy moley candidate nt

[Joe Fields]

14. You can't take what's happening in bible belt Iowa and apply it to

the rest of the campaign. Huckabee is third currently in N.H., and with the troubling issues of his past following him, he may not even finish the race.