Religion and the 2008 Campaign

John Green writes in First Things:

Has religion lost its purchase at the polls, pushed aside by questions of prosperity and peace? Is there a fundamental shift in the structure of faith-based politics, driven by crisis and charisma? Do the results presage a new era in religion and politics? All these queries presume a more basic question: What role did religious voters play in the election of Barack Obama?

The first three questions have straightforward answers. Religion has not lost its influence at the ballot box, although the economy did impact the vote. Despite changes in the issue agenda, there was little ­evidence of a fundamental shift in the structure of faith-based politics in 2008. Instead, variation within the structure favored the Democrats. Although the sum of this variation was large enough to put Obama in the White House, it gave no clear evidence that a new era in faith-based politics is in the offing.

The fourth question requires a more complex answer. Obama largely held on to the religious elements of the Democratic coalition, enjoying expanded support from religious minorities, and also made modest gains among some groups of white Christians. In the end, Obama gained some support among the most traditional white Catholics but lost some support among the less traditional.

US News interviews Deal Hudson, who did Catholic outreach for President Bush. He is not happy.

Newt's Epic Journey?

Newt Gingrich is mulling a run for president in 2012.

For some background on Newt, see a 1997 article in Reason.

Full Circle

Saying that the White House has anointed him the leader of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh has challenged President Obama to debate.

Obama's Manager Writes of Limbaugh

David Plouffe, who ran the brilliant campaign of Barack Obama, is pushing the joining the effort to make Rush Limbaugh the face of the GOP:The 2008 election sent many messages. At the top:

Americans wanted to turn the page on the politics of division and partisan pettiness, and they wanted a government -- and country -- that would put the middle class first. Watching the Republicans operate this past month, it would appear that they missed that unmistakable signal. Instead, Rush Limbaugh has become their leader.

As Jonathan Martin writes in The Politico, the tactic is deliberate and systematic. It is also clever. On the one hand, the focus on Limbaugh fires up Democrats who hate him. On the other hand, it presents Republican pols with a dilemma. Support Limbaugh, and risk attachment to his more radioactive comments. Criticize Limbaugh, and incur the wrath of El Rushbo.

The president is a student of Saul Alinsky, and it is clear that his troops are operating according to Alinsky methods. Consider these excerpts from Rules for Radicals:

• "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."
• "The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.”

The Collateral Damage of Campaign 2008

Meghan McCain discusses the impact of the epic journey:

"I fear the election has destroyed my ability and desire to date," McCain, 24, wrote in a lighthearted blog essay Monday on the Daily Beast. "Nothing kills my libido quite like discussing politics."
She is turned off by people who voted for President Obama. She also gets the willies from obsessive supporters of her dad.
She loses interest "when I find my father's face staring back at me on a potential date's Facebook page," she explained.

Outside Money in 2008

Campaign finance is a major theme of Epic Journey. A new report from the Campaign Finance Institute has some fascinating data on "outside money."

Influenced by regulatory changes as well as political circumstances, federal 527s spent $200 million, only half of what they did in 2004, but 501 (c) (4) social welfare groups, (c) (5) labor unions and (c) (6) business leagues disbursed at least three times as much as in 2004 or 2006. (501 (c) educational, religious and charitable groups are prohibited from engaging in partisan campaign intervention)

Look Back in Anger, Again

At the Conservative Political Action Conference, leading conservatives did not have fond memories of the Bush administration:

"Sadly, our former president propelled America to socialism - all the way to third base," with Obama set to bring it to home, said conservative columnist Deroy Murdock. "Our side emerged with neither principle nor power."

And John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations, was equally non-nostalgic in speaking about his former boss: "We are better off, in some sense, not having the Bush administration to defend," the former Bush administration official said. "Too many people connected the Bush administration to conservatism, and as we all know, that didn't happen."

Even former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich - while winning laughs for deriding Democrats in power - slammed the recently-retired president. "We didn't get real change. We got big spending under Bush, now we have big spending under Obama," said Gingrich, author of the "Contract With America" that underlay the 1994
Republican takeover of Congress. "The great irony . . . is that we have a Bush-Obama big spending program that is bipartisan in nature," Gingrich told conference attendees.