Obama: Can he woo evangelicals?
Posted: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 9:11 AM by Domenico Montanaro
The AP: "Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and -- in a move sure to cause controversy -- support their ability to hire and fire based on faith.” Obama today will be "unveiling his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday at Eastside Community Ministry in Zanesville, Ohio. The arm of Central Presbyterian Church operates a food bank, provides clothes, has a youth ministry and provides other services in its impoverished community."
Per an email today from the campaign, “Obama does not believe that faith-based groups are an alternative to government or secular nonprofits, or that they’re better at lifting people but. But what he does believe is that we all have to work together to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.” In addition, it says that Obama’s proposal won’t violate the separation of church and state. “First, if an organization gets a federal grant, it will not be permitted to use that grant money to proselytize to the people it serves, and the group will forbidden to discriminate against them on the basis of their religion. And groups will be required to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws in their hiring practices—including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques will only be allowed to go toward secular programs. And Obama will ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work.”
The New York Times: "Obama and his advisers are seeking support not only among relatively moderate evangelicals like Mrs. Speakman, who voted for Mr. Bush in 2000 but backed Senator John Kerry, a Democrat, in 2004 because of her opposition to the war. They are also trying to take advantage of signs that some conservative Christians are rethinking their politics, urged along by a new generation of leadership and intensified concern about issues including climate change, genocide, AIDS and poverty.”
“Between now and November, the Obama forces are planning as many as 1,000 house parties and dozens of Christian rock concerts, gatherings of religious leaders, campus visits and telephone conference calls to bring together voters of all ages motivated by their faith to engage in politics. It is the most intensive effort yet by a Democratic candidate to reach out to self-identified evangelical or born-again Christians and to try to pry them away from their historical attachment to the Republican Party."
The NRA is pledging to spend some $15 million this year against Obama, Politico reports. "While the gun culture is typically associated with the South, it’s actually the industrial Midwest where hunting is most popular. Pennsylvania has the most NRA members per capita of any state, and, after Texas, the next four states that sell the most hunting-related goods are Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Missouri, according to the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.”
“And while Bill Clinton, Gore and Kerry could all handle a gun and had been hunting many times over the years, Obama has never hunted in his life and is the furthest thing from an outdoorsman. Yet, as with so many issues on which Obama is vulnerable, McCain isn’t exactly a perfect alternative."
Ad Watch: Per the AP, Obama’s second general-election ad “says Obama ‘passed’ several initiatives, giving him all the credit, although they are bills the Legislature passed and not the work of a single lawmaker. Obama was more than one mere vote on the bills cited -- he was one of the leading negotiators who helped turn the legislation into law. He was not the only key player, but many politicians claim responsibility for passing laws that many have worked on.
“He was a leader in passing welfare reform, working to get changes in Illinois with the goal of moving people from welfare to work. And in the next eight years, the number of families receiving welfare dropped from 167,124 to 36,331. But to suggest Obama personally ‘slashed the rolls by 80 percent’ is a stretch; federal law signed by President Clinton required the state come up with a plan to trim the welfare rolls. Obama said he would have opposed Clinton's initiative.”
The New York Times David Brooks examines the new donor class giving money to Obama. "The real core of his financial support is something else, the rising class of information age analysts. Once, the wealthy were solidly Republican. But the information age rewards education with money. There are many smart high achievers who grew up in liberal suburbs around San Francisco, L.A. and New York, went to left-leaning universities like Harvard and Berkeley and took their values with them when they became investment bankers, doctors and litigators.”
“Obama had decided to take a stroll down one of this tiny town's quiet streets Monday after a speech on the topic of patriotism. That sort of public appearance isn't something the Democratic presidential candidate does often, and he encountered people welcoming him onto the porches of their bungalows and clamoring politely but energetically in small crowds to see him. He obliged nearly everyone who wanted to shake his hand. But he never wavered from his goal -- the imposing white Victorian manse that Harry Truman called home and used as the ‘Summer White House’ during his presidency.
"Proclaiming Truman ‘one of my favorites,’ Obama would chat briefly, then resume his walk toward the tour. Until he met Tootie Williams, that is. The St. Louis native was wearing an oversized white T-shirt. It featured a picture of him and said: ‘Obama's in the House.’ Obama said he loved it. So Williams said she'd give it to him and started to peel it off. This caused much laughter, but also obvious consternation on Obama's part, even after she assured him she had on another shirt underneath -- which she did. As she struggled to remove the T-shirt with a mob of reporters and cameras looking on, he warned "Hold the rest of it down!"
