Posted on 09/19/2007 7:14:10 PM PDT by pissant
DENVER (AP) — James Dobson, one of the nation's most politically influential evangelical Christians, made it clear in a message to friends this week he will not support Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson.
In a private e-mail obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, Dobson accuses the former Tennessee senator and actor of being weak on the campaign trail and wrong on issues dear to social conservatives.
"Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won't talk at all about what he believes, and can't speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?" Dobson wrote.
"He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent 'want to.' And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!"
The founder and chairman of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, Dobson draws a radio audience in the millions, many of whom who first came to trust the child psychologist for his conservative Christian advice on child-rearing.
Gary Schneeberger, a Focus on the Family spokesman, confirmed that Dobson wrote the e-mail. Schneeberger declined to comment further, saying it would be inappropriate because Dobson's comments about presidential candidates are made as an individual and not as a representative of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization restricted from partisan politics.
Dobson's strong words about Thompson underscore the frustration and lack of unity among Christian conservatives about the GOP field. Some Christian right leaders have pinned their hopes on Thompson, describing him as a Southern-fried Ronald Reagan. But others have voiced doubts in recent weeks about some of the same issues Dobson highlighted: his position on gay marriage and support for the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation.
Dobson and other Christian conservatives support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would bar gay marriage nationally. Thompson has said he would support a constitutional amendment that would prohibit states from imposing their gay marriage laws on other states, which falls well short of that.
Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for the Thompson campaign, said Wednesday in response to the Dobson e-mail: "Fred Thompson has a 100 percent pro-life voting record. He believes strongly in returning authority to the levels of government closest to families and communities, protecting states from intrusion by the federal government and activist judges.
"We're confident as voters get to know Fred, they'll appreciate his conservative principles, and he is the one conservative in this race who can win the nomination and can go on to defeat the Democratic nominee."
In his e-mail addressed "Dear friends," Dobson includes the text of a recent news story highlighting Thompson's statement that while he was baptized in the Church of Christ, he does not attend church regularly and won't speak about his faith on the stump.
U.S. News and World Report quoted Dobson earlier this year as questioning Thompson's commitment to the Christian faith — comments Dobson contended were not put in proper context. Dobson in this week's e-mail writes that suppositions "about the former senator's never having professed to be a Christian are turning out to be accurate in substance."
Earlier this year, Dobson said he wouldn't back John McCain because of the Arizona senator's opposition to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Later, Dobson wrote on a conservative news Web site that he wouldn't support former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani should he win the Republican nomination. Dobson called Giuliani an "unapologetic supporter of abortion on demand" and criticized him for signing a bill in 1997 creating domestic-partnership benefits in New York City.
Last week, Dobson announced on his radio show that the IRS had cleared him of accusations that he had endangered his organization's nonprofit status by endorsing Republican candidates in 2004. The IRS said Dobson, who endorsed President Bush's re-election bid, was acting as an individual and not on behalf of the nonprofit group.
Huckster has alot of them buffaloed too.
This was a private e-mail? How did it get to the public? Regardless, he should have the right to support who he wants. I listen to him and probably the other 152 do too, but we decide on our own, who to support.
Sarcasm...?
More than a few seeing how his editorials travel the blogs.
He must have some well paid staffers!!
>Oh and by the way, I’m a former youth pastor, so my Christian credentials are solid.<
But your Biblical knowledge is not! That a man lay with a man is an abomination to God. He made man and he made woman for man. And he said go forth and multiply. God’s law cannot be legislated away, but it can be legislated into man’s law.
Of course, I would love a million dollars and Catherine bell, but that aint gonna happen.
He may as well support Hillary.
Exactly.If I didn't feel he was right, it wouldn't change my vote a bit!
Did Keyes actually file paperwork yet? I can’t find anything listed for him.
Very true, the conservative dem’s and ind’s would look for a new home and the gun voters will go 3rd party.
Mr Dobson wants to impose a theocracy on America. He is becoming as relevant as Pat “the body” Robertson.
Ya think?
Mitt Romney is probably willing to do those things if that’s what it takes to win him a straw poll or something.
Well McCain actually has a more conservative voting record.
I never said that God’s cannot be legislated away but you cannot legislate morality. Morality is born of the heart and the spirit. If you want to change the laws of the land to moral ones you must first change the hearts of men. You just cannot simply make a law and expect immoral people to follow it. You must change them and then the laws will follow. The change must first take place in the home and in the churches, not the national legislature. You change in the home and the church and then Godly men will be elected and things will change.
You cannot force your morality on someone just because you’re a a majority. For the day will come when you’re not a majority and then you’ve set the standard to have someone else’s morality forced on you.
Well there is your proof. If he says Newt , at least 153 of us will say no:')
Unfortunately, Mitt supporters rarely do.
Dobson doesn’t speak for THIS conservative, who is also pretty religious. I can only assume that there are others who feel the same.
>Not that I need Dobson to tell me so, but Fred has been thorougholy unimpressive thus far. And he doesn’t look well. All in all, I’m not particularly hopeful.<
He has been campaigning for what - two weeks now, and I read somewhere here today that he is already taking a week off from it. That, in itself, is a little alarming. Best he takes care of himself for his wife and little ones.
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