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Palin brings God, guns to Republican ticket Sat Aug 30, 2008 8:43am EDT By Ed Stoddard - Analysis DALLAS (Reuters) - Conservative Republican prayers for the November 4 presidential election may have been answered. John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate sends a clear message to the party's conservative religious base: God and guns are on the ticket. Conservative Christians and analysts say the 44-year-old devout born-again evangelical and mother of five has the "right stuff" to energize this base, from her staunch opposition to abortion to her passion for hunting and fishing....

<p>December 26, 2003 -- Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean is getting religion. The former Vermont governor - who does not attend church regularly, but prays daily - said he plans to include more references to Jesus and God in his speeches during campaign stops in the South.</p>

WASHINGTON - House Republicans intend to hold votes this summer and fall touching on abortion, guns, religion and other priority issues for social conservatives, part of an attempt to improve the party's prospects in the midterm elections. The "American Values Agenda" also includes a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage — which already has failed in the Senate — a prohibition on human cloning and possibly votes on several popular tax cuts. "Radical courts have attempted to gut our religious freedom and redefine the value system on which America was built. We hope to restore some of those basic...

LITTLE ROCK (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton returned to his native Arkansas on Sunday, telling voters Republicans were trying to drive a wedge through the American heartland with social issues. "Let's be frank about it. Out in the country, they are wearing us out with guns and gay marriage. It's a load of bull," Clinton said. Clinton told a crowd of about 3,000 gathered at a civic arena that Republicans were trying to mislead the public about what Kerry's positions were on these issues. On guns, Kerry wants the ban on assault weapons, which expired earlier this year,...

That America’s political center is to the right of every other modern democracy is nothing new, but why has it recently lurched so much further right? A belligerent cowboy president who says he’s doing God’s work seems on the verge of being elected to another term of office; both houses of Congress are in the hands of conservative Republicans who, thirty years ago, would have been considered wild extremists; most state governments are dominated by born-again bible-thumpers. To describe the recent takeover of America by the right wing of the Republican Party as a revolution is only a slight exaggeration....

That America’s political center is to the right of every other modern democracy is nothing new, but why has it recently lurched so much further right? A belligerent cowboy president who says he’s doing God’s work seems on the verge of being elected to another term of office; both houses of Congress are in the hands of conservative Republicans who, thirty years ago, would have been considered wild extremists; most state governments are dominated by born-again bible-thumpers. To describe the recent takeover of America by the right wing of the Republican Party as a revolution is only a slight exaggeration....

MISSOULA, Mont. — Sitting among the prized huckleberry jams and manicured hogs of the Western Montana State Fair, the lone representative of the Democratic Party tried to blend in. With his jeans and rawhide face, Geoff Badenoch certainly looked the part. And as a native of Glendive, in the wind-seared ranching country of eastern Montana, he talked the part. But there was the matter of that scarlet D attached to his booth. It made him stick out like someone eating corn on the cob with a fork. As one of the poorest states in the country with a long tradition...

"Sooner or later, voters in places like that (the South) are going to grow tired of voting on guns, God and gays and start voting on education, health care and jobs," Dean told the crowd of activists gathered at a "Take Back America" event on Tuesday afternoon.

Boston (CNSNews.com) - Former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told a liberal audience on Tuesday that southern voters will grow tired of the Republicans' perennial appeal on social issues relating to "guns, God and gays." "Sooner or later, voters in places like that (the South) are going to grow tired of voting on guns, God and gays and start voting on education, health care and jobs," Dean told the crowd of activists gathered at a "Take Back America" event on Tuesday afternoon. The event, sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future, was billed by co-director Roger Hickey as "an alternative...

Republicans plan to use Congress to pull Sen. John F. Kerry and vulnerable Democrats into the cultural wars over gay rights, abortion and guns, envisioning a series of debates and votes that will highlight the candidates' positions on divisive issues, according to congressional aides and GOP officials. The strategy will be on full display today, as Kerry (Mass.) and Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), the leading Democratic presidential candidates, plan to interrupt their Super Tuesday campaigning to fly to Washington for half a dozen votes on gun legislation, including liability protections for gun manufacturers. Both men oppose the liability bill, placing...

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told a Tallahassee audience today that southerners have to quit basing their votes on "race, guns, God and gays." Dean, making his first campaign foray into North Florida, spoke at a rally in Jacksonville then addressed more than 500 people at a luncheon of the Capital Tiger Bay Club. He said Sen. Bob Graham, who announced on Monday that he won't run for re-election, is on his "short list" for vice president - if he wins the Democratic nomination to face President Bush next November. The former Vermont governor, who is a physician, also criticized...

Posted on Tue, Nov. 04, 2003 Howard Dean campaigns in Tallahassee Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told a Tallahassee audience today that southerners have to quit basing their votes on "race, guns, God and gays." Dean, making his first campaign foray into North Florida, spoke at a rally in Jacksonville then addressed more than 500 people at a luncheon of the Capital Tiger Bay Club. He said Sen. Bob Graham, who announced on Monday that he won't run for re-election, is on his "short list" for vice president - if he wins the Democratic nomination to face President Bush next...

IT IS a tale of two issues, two states, and two men who may well square off in this autumn's Presidential election. It is also a story which perfectly illustrates the faultline that runs not only through American politics, but American society and American life as well. This week, the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts - home to Senator John Kerry, favourite to win the Democratic nomination - ruled that the state must become the first in the US to allow full same-sex marriages. At about the same moment, defence lawyers in the Texas of George W. Bush...