Trumpeting “faith, family and freedom”, the Religious Right has arrived in Washington convinced that the ascending star of Sarah Palin signifies a Republican presidential campaign created in their own image. The annual Values Voter Summit gathers together many of the socially conservative leaders once dismissed by John McCain as “agents of intolerance” and who, just 12 months ago, might well have cost him the Republican nomination. Last year’s meeting was addressed by no less than nine Republican runners and, in a later straw poll, Mr McCain finished last with support from a mere 1.4 per cent. Yesterday the mood could...