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'This Is Not a Bluff'- A Christian political leader on the threat of a third party.
Newsweek.com ^ | October 23, 2007

Posted on 10/23/2007 11:47:00 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia

Christian conservatives want more respect. They were instrumental in propelling George W. Bush to power—twice—and now they're feeling neglected. At a "Values Voters" summit in Washington last week, leading evangelicals gathered to speak out and take a straw poll. The survey showed how unhappy they are with the twice-divorced, pro-choice Republican front runner for the presidential nomination, Rudy Giuliani. He got less than two percent of the overall vote. (Some Christian activists have threatened to back a third-party candidate if Giuliani wins the GOP nomination.)

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the straw poll of 5,775 conservatives, which included voters who have been able to cast online ballots since August. But many evangelicals are uncomfortable with Romney's Mormon faith. That may have factored in the voting of people who actually attended the summit: Romney lost that tally by a wide margin to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who is also an ordained Southern Baptist minister. To better understand the current thinking of Christian conservatives, NEWSWEEK's Jeffrey Bartholet and Eve Conant spoke to Richard Land, a leading evangelical who serves as president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Excerpts:

(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: christianvote; divideandconquer; elections; enemedia; land; thirdparty; valuesvoters
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To: Bobkk47
Talk is cheap. On election day, when the reality of a likely Hillary presidency becomes clear, evangelicals are not going to vote 3rd party.

No, they will just stay home if Rudy is nominee.

61 posted on 10/23/2007 12:51:15 PM PDT by Barney Gumble (A liberal is someone too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel - Robert Frost)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

A third party is a good idea. That way the Republicans would lose big time and just maybe they would finally get the idea that they have been nothing more than democrats-lite. If I wanted abortion, same-sex marriage, high taxes, the elimination of Christianity and invasion by massive hordes of savage head-choppers I would have voted democrat.


62 posted on 10/23/2007 12:52:23 PM PDT by Leftism is Mentally Deranged
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

I’m not concerened with Romney’s Mormon faith. I’m concerned that a man who was elected Governor of Massechusetts could call himself a conservative.


63 posted on 10/23/2007 12:52:56 PM PDT by Bryan24 (When in doubt, move to the right..........)
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To: henkster
A recent poll shows 50% of likely voters stated they would NEVER vote for her under any circumstances. It’s up from 45%. That’s a stat that guarantees defeat, unless...

That doesn't guarantee defeat because it's not a national election. The votes are tallied state-by-state.

64 posted on 10/23/2007 12:53:53 PM PDT by Publius Valerius
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
... which included voters who have been able to cast online ballots since August

Worth repeating. Romney didn't win the *real* Values Voters straw poll.

65 posted on 10/23/2007 12:56:26 PM PDT by Theo (Global warming "scientists." Pro-evolution "scientists." They're both wrong.)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

I voted for Ross Peroitt, and enabled Bill to get in the first time. Believe me...join a third party and DOOM THE COURNTRY.


66 posted on 10/23/2007 12:57:09 PM PDT by 50sDad (Angels on asteroids are abducting crop circles!)
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To: Lurking in Kansas

Runoff elections should be part of some sort of a voters’ bill of rights. Nobody should ever need fear voting his first choice, at least on a first ballot.


67 posted on 10/23/2007 12:57:22 PM PDT by jeddavis
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To: Mrs. P

The repubs in heavy Dem states could do the same to unwanted Dem candidates....but then again getting a lot of Pubbies to think outside the box is akin to herding cats!


68 posted on 10/23/2007 12:59:01 PM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: GOP Poet

It’s actually pretty easy to predict Giuliani will not be the GOP nominee. Just look at all those running. As the weaker potential candidates drop out, a vast majority of them will move to virtually anyone other than Rudy.

Why would you think otherwise?


69 posted on 10/23/2007 12:59:53 PM PDT by SeaHawkFan
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

(s)I’ll show them! I’m gonna split the Right! This will bring on THE GREAT CHASTISEMENT! LESSONS WILL BE LEARNED! THE LORD WILL COME DOWN AND TEACH! Yeah, I’m gonna show THEM!(/s)


70 posted on 10/23/2007 1:02:23 PM PDT by GOP_1900AD (Stomping on "PC," destroying the Left, and smoking out faux "conservatives" - Take Back The GOP!)
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To: roses of sharon

Well, thank God evangelicals are not stupid, and will never let Hill and Bill reign as our CICs’.
___________

I guess there were no evangelicals during the 1990’s. IIRC, a Clinton served 2 terms in that time period.

did I miss your point?


71 posted on 10/23/2007 1:07:25 PM PDT by dmz
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To: GreenOgre
They'll act just like my five year old. Throw a tantrum, fall on the ground, and kick and scream until someone pays attention to them. They aren't bright enough to realize they have a choice between 90% of what they want and 0% of what they want. They'll shoot themselves in the foot and get 0% because they want attention.

That's true of conservatives in general, actually. As a group, we still can't seem to catch that the left has been content with incremental gains over decades, whereas we insist on winning the One Big Climactic Battle. The problem being, of course, that that battle is never climactic, and thus we never win.

Conservative Christians (of whom "evangelicals" are not the majority, just the loudest) are even worse about it -- we seem to think that theology and politics are separable, whereas the left does not, and so mainstream denominations have by and large been taken over by political leftists.

To their credit, these particular "evangelicals" have identified the connection between theology and politics, but they are so heavy-handed that they tend to alienate even other conservative Christians, not to mention Christians in general. This third-party ploy is a case in point -- most R-voting Christians, seeing the likelihood of a Hillary! candidacy, will dismiss "evangelical leaders" as self-destructive blowhards. And so when these leaders are correct on some theological point or other, they will be dismissed without a fair hearing.

72 posted on 10/23/2007 1:08:50 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: COgamer

Good to see you on this thread, COgamer. Note that I was tempted to write this below in post #11, but it was a succinct quote from the article and said about the same thing as what you wrote.

I like how Cogamer had to say it, so once again I’m stealing it:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1909436/posts?page=158#152

some people on this board are PUSHING it. They not only expect us to grin and tolerate it, they expect us to help!! They see conservatives being marginalized, and then bash conservatives for not supporting the politicians who are marginalizing them. It’s insane!

Let’s look at this through the prism of other movements: Would pro-choice women vote for a politician who announced he wanted to make abortion illegal? Would black voters ever support a politician who wanted to bring back segregation? Would muslims ever support a candidate who was on the record as saying islam was evil?

Would their friends even TRY to tell them they HAD to vote for these candidates even if they didn’t want to?

No! But conservatives are expected to vote for anyone who has an R after their name, no matter how dangerous to the movement, just to avoid the ire of a bunch of wishy-washy phonies whose only brush with conservatism is the fact that they post to this website.

They need to understand - if they nominate Rudy, THEY are responsible for what follows. THEY know many will refuse to support him. So, turning their flawed logic on its head : If they support Rudy, they must actually want Hillary to win. Indeed - if Hillary changed parties they’d be telling us we had to support HER to stop OBAMA!!!!

152 posted on 10/10/2007 6:28:13 PM PDT by COgamer
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73 posted on 10/23/2007 1:09:44 PM PDT by Kevmo (We should withdraw from Iraq — via Tehran. And Duncan Hunter is just the man to get that job done.))
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Hillary’s dream come true.


74 posted on 10/23/2007 1:09:46 PM PDT by hershey
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To: SlowBoat407

I like that!


75 posted on 10/23/2007 1:11:02 PM PDT by glide625
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To: jeddavis
Two words: RUNOFF ELECTIONS.....

No such thing in presidential elections. The best a third party candidate could hope for is to throw the election to Congress for a decision.

76 posted on 10/23/2007 1:14:41 PM PDT by Non-Sequitur (Save Fredericksburg. Support CVBT.)
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To: COgamer
Republicans won’t fight Giuliani.

Just like they didn't fight the immigration bill pushed by Bush.

Most judge nominations are pushed forward from the Senate to the President, he picks, then the full Senate confirms. But I'm sure you knew that already.

77 posted on 10/23/2007 1:16:54 PM PDT by narby
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To: JSDude1
SO SICK OF THAT KIND OF RHETORIC: IF THE REPUBLICANS LOOSE- IT’ll BE THEIR FAULT

'They' is 'We' the voters will decide the candidate and anyone with conservative values, whether they agree with 100%, 50% or 40% of the views of the candidate should get behind them. Otherwise, you are helping elect someone with less than 1% of what you believe and will be dedicated to advancing the agenda opposite of your beliefs. Would you rather have a disasterous four years on life, gun and free speech issues under Hillary or neutral years with our own party's chosen candidate.

78 posted on 10/23/2007 1:18:33 PM PDT by ilgipper
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To: SeaHawkFan
It’s actually pretty easy to predict Giuliani will not be the GOP nominee. Just look at all those running. As the weaker potential candidates drop out, a vast majority of them will move to virtually anyone other than Rudy.

Why would you think otherwise?

So I guess since you have this all wrapped up we can all just quit posting and go home. lol.

Your comments made actually no sense as you argued nothing based on absolutely nothing. If you are going to state something is "easy to predict" at least offer an intelligent analysis that makes some sort of claim or sense.

To 'predict' "a vast majority of 'them'(candidates running) will move on to virtually anyone other than Rudy" makes zero sense as just a few candidates voting for anyone other than Rudy makes not the Republican party just for a starter. But hey, I took Logic and which teaches stuff like clear thinking and mental steps of thinking so as to arrive at a conclusion that follows. You can take these classes at any community college and it usually helps with learning how to argue a point and eliminates the need for crystal ball claims that don't hold a drip of water.

Unless of course you are just joking. Which could be the only intelligent explanation for your nonsensical claim or attempted argument. Then I will laugh and say, "Good one! There are a heck of a lot of candidates out there!" lol.

79 posted on 10/23/2007 1:21:29 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

Some religious leaders are starting to remind me of union leaders.

Disclosure: I’m not a Rudy supporter, my comment has nothing to do with Rudy.


80 posted on 10/23/2007 1:22:19 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (...."We're the govt, and we're here to hurt."....)
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