Gingrich is not running for President. He's too smart for that because he knows he'd fare no better with SoCons than Thompson did. Everybody knows it! How can any conservative of any kind trust a guy who can't even be faithful to the wife of his youth?
Before you say "Reagan", realize that Reagan was abandoned by his first wife and did not do the abandoning.
Dobson does not have a flock, which shows you know absolutely nothing about Dobson. And Dobson does not get too clever by half by trying to manipulate an outcome in March 2007; before Fred had even gotten close to getting in the race; through a minefield of undesirables; via an opinion posing as analysis. He was simply telling it like it was. You are accusing Dobson of doing exactly what Limbaugh has been doing since mid December.
In the Pastoral sense of having a flock you may be right, still there are literally millions of Christians who every single Sunday get his opinion on Christian values and matters, in those instances he's Biblically correct and right. He had no business whatsoever issuing a statement on whether or not a particular candidate is a Christian. He stabbed Fred Thompson in the back, and for that he's lost my respect forever, and I now have to question every word he utters.
Flock is literal term. I know plenty about Dobson. Focus on the Family is his stated ministry. I am supportive of his efforts to advance his ministry.
But Dobson didn't need to be prescient on the GOP political race. Fred was in the race, maybe not officially, but he was in. If not, why would Dobson seek out a personal meeting with "non-candidate" Thompson? Fred was gracious enough to meet with Dobson and to speak frankly with him. And in response to this courtesy, Dobson leaked the derogatory email, which caused the press to seek Dobson's opinion on the record.
Dobson is entitled to his opinion, but he committed a wilfull, intentional and unChristian like act in his slagging of Thompson. Any sentient being will acknowledge that Dobson was trying to discourage Fred's official entry into the race and to encourage any other conservative - even the adulterous Gingrich - to enter the race, provided that they would kiss his ring.
No candidate is perfect, but conservatives of all stripes needed to unify behind a candidate who offered the most positives to all factions. I fault Dobson for being a poor Christian in this incident and a horrible political tactician for his part in removing conservatives from the GOP slate.
"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!"
Gilgoff's reporting is not what Dobson said that hurt Thompson. I'm sure you didn't forget the email.
Dobson does not have a flock, which shows you know absolutely nothing about Dobson.
Dobson has a following who follow his ideas that he professes on the radio with the same diligence that they follow their Sunday Pastor's pronouncements. Oftentimes moreso. To deny that is to either distort the reality of evangelical thought processes or to be ignorant thereof.