Some U.S. Christians are not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regard the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people.Classy, huh?
...Nevertheless, the word is that some evangelicals dispute Huckabee's support (of John McCain). One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used told me that Huckabee, in personal conversation with him, had embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve. That fits what has largely been a fringe position among evangelicals: that the pain of an Obama presidency is in keeping with the Bible's prophecy.
According to this activist, at the heart of the let-Obama-win movement is longtime Virginia conservative leader Michael Farris -- the nation's leading home-school advocate, who is now chancellor of Patrick Henry College (in Purcellville, Va.) for home-schooled students. Best known politically as the losing Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia in 1993, Farris is regarded as one of the hardest-edged Christian politicians. He is reported in evangelical circles to promote the biblical justification for an Obama plague-like presidency.
(Now, of course, Farris and the Huckster deny all of this on the record, and anonymous sources definitely deserve to be taken with a grain of salt, but it's worth noting that Novak has shown a knack for getting legit--I shudder to use the word "good"--information).
If you thought we hit bottom when the Bushistas managed to equate dissent with the far-Right's talking points with un-Americanism, then, clearly, you've got another think coming. Try and wrap your head around that for a second: Now, having political views in line with an Obama means you're, somehow, both the reason for, and--amazingly--the means of, divine retribution being visited upon our nation.
The GOP has long had a schizophrenic relationship with the James Dobson/Tony Perkins segment of the Christian Right, throwing them heaping rhetorical piles of gay-bashing, anti-choice red meat to get them to turn out at the polls...only to treat them like the crazy aunt that they keep locked in the attic when it came time to prioritize the legislative agenda. Votes are great; the potential consequences for carrying water for the fringe, not so much so.
Which is why accounts like these must be turning their bowels to water, right about now.
With the sizable amount of traction Huckabee had in the primaries, the GOP can now hear the crazy aunt at the top of the attic stairs scrabbling to put her newly found key in the lock. If the "our opponents are God's plague" wing of the party gets that door open and starts running around town pushing that particular argument into the popular discourse, everyone with an "R" after his/her name is going to have it hung around their neck for years.
Quite fittingly, reaping what they've taken such pains to sow over the past decade or so.
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