[11th Earl of Mar]

Same on us.

[Boston Capitalist]

The drunk-driving reports the weekend before the election probably had a lot to do with them staying home. The people who would take something like that most seriously are the people who would normally support Bush.

Most of the polls had Bush up at least three or four points befure the DUI claim and then things collapsed fast over the weekend.

Rove is complaining about 4m Christians who stayed home and that is roughly 4% of the populace.

So Gore's tactic was a huge succes.

[SamAdams76]

Shame on the Christians who stayed home whether it was because they didn't agree 100% with Bush on abortion or whether they didn't agree 100% with Bush on some other issue.

The majority of Democrats thought Bill Clinton was a scumbag. But that didn't stop them from going out there on election day 1996 to keep their party in power. Many of them didn't like Algore either but nevertheless, they made it out to the polls in huge numbers and came thisclose to winning the election again while stubborn conservative Christians sat on their hands because they were miffed that Bush wasn't "100% pure." It didn't matter to them that Bush was probably the most genuine Christian to run since Jimmy Carter. If Bush wasn't perfect, by golly, they were going to stay home and listen to Anita Bryant records. Or burn Harry Potter books. Or vote Buchanan just for spite.

Guess what? We are never going to have a perfect candidate for president. I don't think there is even an electable person out there who will please these fundamentalist Christians.

So long as these single-issue, all-or-nothing conservative voters fold their arms and refuse to vote for anybody who is not 100% lock-step with their beliefs, we are going to continue to see Democrats or RINOS get elected.

If all the conservatives could suck it in and vote for their party, the Republicans will gain a large majority in this country. Then we can focus on making the candidates more pure once we obtain power. Until then, we are going to struggle just to avoid losing the White House in 2004, while the Democrats rally around whatever smooth-talking, disingenous slimeball they dredge up for next time.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

bump.

[Eagle Eye]

but stayaway believers came close to losing him the election, according to his chief political adviser, Karl Rove.

There's that same old assumption that a given party or candidate was owed those votes.

As long as any party or candidate assumes that they own votes, there will never be significant changes. They will not be accountable to the voters and then will blame the voters for not voting even when the voters are displeased with the party of candidate.

Candidates that don't assume they are owed votes tend to work harder to earn those votes.

[Saundra Duffy]

This really makes me mad! I ran into these so-called Christians when I campaigned my heart out for Dan Lungren who ran for Gov of CA 1998 AND LOST! Some "Christians" told me God told them NOT to vote for Lungren; it had to do with appointment of judges. Lungren was pro-life but not pro-life enough to suit those creeps from hell. Anyway, that's how we got Gov. "Gay" Davis who is pro abortion up the wazoo and who is destroying the state in every way imaginable. These stay-at-home "Christians" who didn't bother to vote for GWB, SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES ESPECIALLY NOW IN THIS TIME OF WAR!! (We almost had Al Gore who would have been an impotent leader like his boss, the RAPIST! Geeeeez, this makes me mad! For victory & freedom!!!

[extreme469]

I am a Christian BUT I am not a one issue voter. Get a clue fanatics.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

In the early days of this land it was the practice that pastors would preach election day sermon, reminding Christians of their civic duties. I don't think that it is asking too much, nor is it an excessive intanglement of church with state, for Christians to reminded from the pulpit the Sunday prior to each election that the God who has given them unprecedented civil liberties also expects us to wisely and responsibly exercise our civic duties.

[Surge-on]

STAYAWAY CHRISTIANS ALMOST COST ELECTION

The flip side of this is that a deluge of handout grabbing freeloaders and illegal felons and aliens almost stole the election..

[Integrityingovt]

AS a Christian I agree with Karl Rove. The majority of the church in America has sat on its hands just warming the pews on Sunday morning for the last 30 years listening to feel good sermons while the secular/humanists legalized abortion, pushed gay rights,and every other liberal issue you can think of. George W. Bush is a Christian, his faith is real. I know that from people that are very close to him. But he is being pulled in many different directions right now to keep from upsetting the muslim world. We need to pray for him to get focused on his savior again and Christianity and stop talking about Islam. This is the prayer the country should be praying 2nd Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, who are called by my name,will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. In Jesus Name, Amen

[A CA Guy]

Christians need to vote in every election. EVERY ELECTION!

If you don't vote, you can't whine that you have a Cliton type elected.

[Ol' Sox]

Is it just me or does anyone else wonder just how the devil they know this?

[Ol' Sparky]

No, these are the real Christians that stand principle rather than allowing politicians to sell out what's left of morality in our nation and allow the Republicans to advance an all-out homosexual agenda and name senate candidates that compare pro-lifers to the Taliban.<{> Shame on Bush for caving into homosexual activists and abandoning his base on issue after issue. There is no reason for real, dedicated Christians to support a President that names AIDS czars that believe in clean needles, condoms and gay marriage. Or cheapen human life with stem cell decisions that follow Clinton's executive orders rather than law.

[sayfer bullets]

"But we may also be returning to the point in America where fundamentalists and evangelicals remain true to their beliefs and think politics is corrupt and, therefore, they shouldn't participate."

At first read of this article, I was preparing to blast Rove. The article is written to suggest, apparently, that Rove intended to take us Bible Thumpers to the woodshed. The excerpt is an example that if we remove the quotes from the commentary things can look different.

After further review it appears to me he's being rather introspective.

One needs to be aware that the word "fundamentalism" (and variattions of...) has now been given a negative connotation, just as "liberal", "ignorant", and others have. By doing this we can rhetorically tar-and-feather all kinds of folks.

I often thought that throughout the '80's and on(when the moviemakers and politicians had a heyday making Islamic people their whipping boys, and "Rock the Casbar" crap was going on)that it was just a matter of time until they used that precedent to marginalize Christians. Well here we are.

I don't see much to gripe at Rove about here, but I AM watching.

[Tory-Oxonian]

Hey! Lets all be upset that Bush is not conservative enough and let the liberal-socialists win elections! Good idea! Thats patriotism....NOT.

Conservatives are their (our) own worst enemies.

[edsheppa]

Hmmm, I suppose it could have been that conservative Christians almost cost Bush the election ... or maybe Rove's forecasts just sucked.

[shortstop]

Have any of you people ever stopped to think that if we started to elect more Republicans (even RINOs), we would start building a bigger majority in the house and also take over the senate. With that plurality, I feel the Republicans would start pushing harder for more conservative legislation because now both houses would be in the majority. With a 60% plurality, Bush could do everything he said he would do during the election. I believe in incrementalism and we have to have the majorities before we get the 60%. I'm not sure the Stayaway Christians would ever understand this. They have "principles", you know.

[Antoninus]

Hey Karl. Tell you what. If you want the true-believing Christians to come out in big numbers, there's an easy way to do it. Kick the pro-abortion RINOs to the side and stop cuddling up to the gays.

I don't care which party you're from. If you support abortion and oppose the traditional family, you don't get my vote. It's that simple.

[Republican Wildcat]

That was probably because of the DUI thing and when it came out...it suppressed the vote.

[ThinkLikeWaterAndReeds]

The abortion discussion appears to be short-sighted. Christians appear to believe, so very much like Islam, that their mythology is the only ideology worth considering and all else is false (must be the virgins rewarded to true Christians in the afterlife). The abortion question is still not well thought out, even after all the verbage that has been applied to it. After analyzing the state of our society, you might consider legalizing abortion up to the age of 18.

[elfman2]

I don't want to step into this mess,… not again!

I just want to say that we all know that the real enemy of our constitutional republic is socialism, and if we just pull together a little here rather than bicker like children, we can push the Democrats out of all significant government posts. Wouldn't after that be a better time for resolving the libertarian verses social conservative disagreement.