David Kuo, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, writes about last night's Republican presidential debate as if it was a horse race. Kuo, writing at BeliefNet, says the debate was "the first leg of the Religious Right Derby" and Mitt Romney won it big.
Kuo believes Romney is beating the "flip-flopper" tag on the abortion issue with Religious Right voters:
He answers the abortion question the way the religious right understands. He's had a change of heart. He's seen the light. He is the political Paul on the road to Damascus. He was once pro-choice, he is now pro-life and to the religious right that makes all the sense in the world. His heart has been changed. Others may call that being a flip-flopper. In this context, however, he has become holier, "I said I was wrong and changed my mind and said I'm pro-life."
I hadn't thought of it that way. No one doubts that Romney is a man of sincere religious faith - thus, his change of position on the abortion issue can be accepted by the Religious Right as a kind of conversion. Giuliani can't manage the trick in part because he doesn't believe it - he's clearly still pro-choice but pandering to the Religious Right - and because he isn't seen as a man animated by his religious faith.
Gov. Romney still has lots of issues with the religious right. There is his Mormon faith. Many in the religious right think Mormons are cultists. There is his really, really odd taste in fiction - he's said that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth is his favorite book. But he has broken from the pack and made a believer out of a lot of folks on the religious right.
Sen. McCain was quiet and finished safely in the middle of the pack. Mayor Giuliani is still out there on the track somewhere and Sen. Brownback ran well. Off to the next leg...
Kuo's article is a must-read. Click here.
Don't miss the ending.
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