I might have titled this post “The Most Viable Candidate for President, Part 2” because it continues the theme of my earlier post about Mitt Romney. Pro-lifers must take very seriously the question of a candidate’s viability in a general election. It’s not enough to win the popularity contest among primary voters. The best candidate will be able to win the general election.
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The Most Viable Candidate for President
The editors of The National Review have decided to endorse Mitt Romney as their choice for the next president of the United States. They raise a number of issues in their editorial that I think all serious voters need to consider. But their stated criteria for endorsing a candidate is very clear: “Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate.”
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Huckabee Leads Romney by 22 Points in Iowa
If you are a poll-watcher, then you know that Mike Huckabee has been steadily gaining on Mitt Romney in the polls in Iowa. In fact, one poll this week had him with a 3 point lead over Romney (though two other polls showed Romney leading Huckabee by 1 point). Well, something gigantic has just happened. The new Newsweek poll has Huckabee leading Romney by 22 points! The jump is so dramatic that one wonders if the poll is a fluke. That kind of margin just seems so unlikely, but there it is. Whether the big jump in poll numbers has something to do with Romney’s speech on religious liberty remains…
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Albert Mohler on NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News produced a feature on the emerging church in which Tom Brokaw interviewed Dr. Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It’s a short, but interesting bit. Dr. Mohler does a great job, as usual. I would make one observation about this piece. It seems to me that the media’s interest in the emerging church is almost entirely political. Brokaw’s coverage in this segment is a case in point. Underlying Brokaw’s attention to the new movement is a curiosity about how this new section of evangelicalism will affect electoral politics. I suppose that this should not be very surprising. But it is interesting to note…
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The Phony YouTube Debate
On Wednesday night, CNN hosted a “YouTube” debate for the Republican candidates for President. Questions came to the candidates from “ordinary” citizens who videoed themselves asking questions about the important issues of our time. Anderson Cooper hosted the event for CNN, and it came off without a hitch . . . until the post debate discussion.
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Huckabee Clinches Nomination with Chuck Norris’ Endorsement
In case you didn’t know, Chuck Norris has a huge cult following among the American electorate. And he has recently thrown his weighty political endorsement to presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. This is big news, because we all know that the world must defer to the superior martial arts skills of Chuck Norris. Here are some facts to support the point:
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Who Would Jesus Bomb?
Don’t miss Russell Moore’s “Who Would Jesus Bomb? War, Peace, and the Christian.” In this short essay, Moore considers the poles of pacifism and militarism and suggests that the Just-War tradition is the best way for Christians to think about issues of war and peace. Here’s a snippet: “When, if ever, is it right for a government to kill people? As you sort out the ethics of war, the stakes are high for your spiritual formation. Sure, you probably won’t single-handedly decide whether the United States should invade Canada. But the way you think through the rightness or wrongness of military action tells you something about how you see your…
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Rudy Giuliani: A Disaster Waiting to Happen
Hadley Arkes argues in First Things something similar to what I have been arguing on this blog. The nomination of Rudy Giuliani would effectively give us two pro-choice parties. If Rudy is elected, pro-lifers will be pushed to the political margins, and there will be no voice for the unborn in mainstream electoral politics. Here are the relevant lines:
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Good News from Abroad, and from the Homefront
According to the Washington Post, there is more good news from Iraq and beyond, and this is welcome news for the Bush administration. The war in Iraq seems to have taken a turn for the better and the opposition at home has failed in all efforts to impose its own strategy. North Korea is dismantling its nuclear program. The budget deficit is falling. A new attorney general has been confirmed despite objections from the left.
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Good News from Iraq . . . No, Great News!
For a war-weary nation, this latest report from the Associated Press is salve: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday suicide attacks and other bombings in the Iraqi capital have dropped dramatically since last year’s high, calling it a sign of the end of sectarian violence. A top U.S. general here said he believes the drop is sustainable, as Iraqis turn away from extremists.