Free Republic

While John McCain has risen to the top of the heap among contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson remains adamant that he will not support McCain’s bid for the White House. Dobson, one of the nation’s most influential evangelical Christians, declared more than a year ago that he wouldn't support McCain under any circumstances, saying McCain didn't support traditional marriage values. A Dobson spokesman told the New York Times’ David Kirkpatrick Wednesday that he stood by that position, and as a matter of conscience could never vote for the Arizona Senator. According to...

Don't tell Joe Scarborough that John McCain's the stronger Republican candidate because he can attract voters in the middle. The Morning Joe host has depicted McCain as unelectable because of the opposition to him of two key conservative leaders, Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson. Scarborough's comments during the opening segment of today's Morning Joe were prompted by an article in today's New York Times that included this line [emphasis added]: Since his victory in the Florida primary, the growing possibility that Mr. McCain may carry the Republican banner in November is causing anguish to the right. Some, including James C....

There have been more than a few recent articles and editorials attempting to affix blame for the demise of the Republican Party. Peggy Noonan blames President Bush. Rush Limbaugh believes a McCain nomination will kill the party. However, even in a worse case scenario, the Republican Party will probably stagger along for several years much like the last decade of the Whigs. Conservative Republicans should probably be more concerned about the impending demise of the conservative movement within the party. Some individuals can be blamed more than others, but this folly has many fathers. The latest blow to conservatives has...

Focus on the Family has never seen a pointless war it wouldn’t wage. So the purported War on Christmas was made for Dr. James Dobson’s crew. Jesus Christ overturned the moneychangers’ tables and excoriated them for turning God’s house into a den of thieves. Dobson just wants the thieves to wish you a Merry Christmas.

GOP presidential contender Fred Thompson brought his message to religious conservatives in Hollywood after a stopover in Pensacola. Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson polished his conservative credentials Friday as he emphasized family values and traditional policy pillars in a speech Friday night to a conservative religious group. The Florida Family Policy Council invited Thompson to be the keynote speaker at at a dinner at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood. The group is an off-shoot of James Dobson's Focus on the Family and has advocated a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The group is not endorsing the Republican...

FORT MILLS, S.C -- Campaigning in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson raised his voice and shook his fists as he described his vision of an America true to conservative values. The display of vigor last week was timely: Two months into his bid for the nomination, the former Tennessee senator is fighting to shake the image of a laid-back -- even lazy -- candidate who lacks the fervor of his rivals. Thompson not only has adopted a forceful speaking style, he has taken a more aggressive approach toward other Republican candidates. The push to put...

There is an old hymn written by Fanny Crosby, sung at generations of camp meetings, which exclaims: "Crown Him! Crown Him! Prophet, and Priest, and King!" Since the emergence of evangelicalism as a cultural force in the 1950s, three approaches to politics, represented by three personalities, have emerged. They are the prophet, the priest and the kingmaker. The prophet has been psychologist James Dobson, who dispenses child-rearing advice on the radio from his Colorado ministry, Focus on the Family. On family issues, Dobson's counsel is moderate and broadly appealing. On politics, his tone sharpens. He rails against compromise on social-conservative...

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his rivals for the Republican nomination will face a tough crowd when they address the religious conservatives at the Values Voter Summit starting Friday. “I think what we can expect is a lot of folks talking about how dissatisfied they are with the choices they have,” former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said. Giuliani’s positions on abortion and gay rights continue to dog him as he looks for support within the leadership of the religious conservative movement, and those leaders say they want to hear more from the former mayor this weekend than...

James Dobson is a courageous leader and a battle-scarred warrior. He has gone head to head with the best of them and has done a wonderful job of defending Christian values in the political arena. He has earned our respect and deserves our prayers. However, just as John Kerry's war record didn't make him a good president, Jim Dobson's record does not make him right about the 2008 presidential race. Dobson has allowed his pride to cause him to publicly vow "never for the rest of my life to vote for anyone who would kill innocent babies." Making this a...

Christian conservatives have thus far failed to rally behind a single candidate, but a prominent conservative leader predicts at least one candidate will emerge from the upcoming Values Voter Summit with major support from social conservatives. Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, recently said he was “very optimistic” with the field of candidates that will attend this week’s Washington Briefing 2007: Values Voter Summit. He believes there will be one to two contenders that will be revealed as the favorite among social conservatives during the three-day gathering. But even if none of the candidates appeal to values voters, it...

Ever since James Dobson threw down the gauntlet against the Republican Party nominating a pro-choice presidential candidate, the focus has been on the intransigence of the religious right. Obdurate evangelical zealots are said to be tearing down GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani and paving the way for Hillary Clinton's presidency. The real story is how feeble and ineffectual conservative Christian opposition to Giuliani has actually been. Less than four years after the phrase "values voter" entered into the political parlance, the GOP seems poised to nominate a thrice-married, pro-choice supporter of civil unions. In the not too distant past, Giuliani favored...

Conservative evangelical leader Dr. James Dobson admits that a third-party plan supported by pro-family leaders might unintentionally help elect democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton. The influential pro-family advocate still contends, however, that he would rather vote following his values than compromise and be forced to choose between two pro-choice candidates. “We’re very, very concerned about the implications of a Hillary Clinton presidency, but you know, we have been working … for 35 years, I’ve been trying to defend the unborn child,” Dobson said on Fox’s Hannity & Colmes show Monday. “That’s been my life. That’s been my belief, along with...

Fred Thompson may not yet have won the hearts and minds of Republican voters in the United States. But give the GOP presidential candidate this much - he knows who runs the government of Canada. "Harper. Prime Minister Harper," Thompson said, without hesitation Tuesday when asked during a Republican all-candidates presidential debate to name Canada's leader. That Thompson correctly answered the unexpected question saved him some mild embarrassment before an audience of Republican supporters at the CNBC debate in Dearborn, Mich. But it'll likely do little to quell larger doubts about a late-starting presidential campaign that has struggled to meet...

One of the most powerful leaders in conservative evangelical Christianity has discouraged his colleagues from supporting Fred Thompson as a presidential candidate. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, sent a private e-mail to many of his fellow religious right leaders criticizing some of the Republican contender's stances and statements, according to the Associated Press. "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 [the] McCain-Feingold [campaign-finance reform law], won't talk at all about what he believes, and can't speak his...

Hannity & Colmes

The National Public Radio (NPR) website today (10/2/07) reports a discussion on their daily radio show, “All Things Considered”, about the religious right’s new stand on the possibility of Rudy Giuliani winning the Republican presidential nomination: “This weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah, a group of leading social conservatives — all members of an organization called the Council for National Policy, agreed on a resolution: If the Republican Party nominates a “pro-abortion” candidate, the group will consider running a third-party candidate.” From the context of the NPR article, and because of the quotation marks around it, it is difficult to...

I tend to agree with one of our local talk show hosts who recently stated that while Rudy might be able to fool enough people during the primaries that he isn't all that liberal, you can bet when he goes up against Hillary she is going to make sure everybody knows his dirty little secret that most of the media including Fox News is trying to white-wash. I am what is known as a Social Conservative. I voted for President George W. Bush twice and do not regret either vote even though he has disappointed me and even though I...

Kathleen Parker, Washington Post Writers Group Friday, October 5, 2007 Evangelical Christians never had it so good, but they seem not to know it. Instead of supporting the candidate who most shares their values - Mitt Romney - they seem hell-bent for the proverbial cliff. Meeting recently in Salt Lake City, conservative Christian leaders almost unanimously approved a resolution to support a third-party candidate if neither major party nominates someone who is anti-abortion. --snip-- James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, explained in a New York Times op-ed Thursday that Christian leaders believe any presidential candidate has...

Conservative evangelical leaders have long openly expressed dismay over the prospect of being forced to choose between two pro-choice presidential candidates. But now, a coalition of evangelicals has gone as far as to threaten to pull their support for the Republican Party if such a candidate is selected for the last stretch of the White House race. Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family – who recently emerged from a controversy over a private email he sent criticizing Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson – says he and others in the social conservative coalition will not support Rudy Giuliani...

Dr. James Dobson is scheduled to discuss his recent controversies on but two media outlets: Sean Hannity's radio program and Hannity & Colmes TV show. Sean announced that Dobson would be on the radio show some time *next hour* (3-4 p.m. Mountain Time, 5-6 p.m. EST, 2-3 p.m. Pacific.