NEWS STORY: Clinton and Dole pitch morality to Christian radio listeners

c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ President Clinton and Republican challenger Bob Dole have both started airing commercials on Christian radio stations, with each claiming the moral high ground during the last weeks of the presidential campaign. Dole last week launched the tit-for-tat ad cycle, buying time in about 15 states to broadcast a […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ President Clinton and Republican challenger Bob Dole have both started airing commercials on Christian radio stations, with each claiming the moral high ground during the last weeks of the presidential campaign.

Dole last week launched the tit-for-tat ad cycle, buying time in about 15 states to broadcast a 60-second spot that blames the president for the”moral crisis”that the ad says has gripped the United States.


The Dole ad attacks Clinton’s support of abortion rights and gays in the military. The”problem,”says the ad,”isn’t in your house. The problem is in the White House. Bill Clinton’s White House.”The ad concludes by noting Dole’s”strong moral center.” The Clinton ad, which is also 60-seconds long, portrays the president as a defender of religious freedom who supports a”complete ban on late-term abortions except”to save a mother’s life or protect her health.” Clinton has been widely criticized by some members of the religious community _ notably Roman Catholics, conservative Protestants and Orthodox Jews _ for his decision to veto the ban on a controversial late-term abortion procedure, which was approved by Congress earlier this year. He said he would sign such a ban only if it included provisions to protect the life and health of the mother.

The same Clinton ad also notes the president’s recent signing of the Defense of Marriage Act, which bans same-sex couples from receiving federal benefits and allows a state not to recognize a same-sex marriage legally performed in another state. The ad concludes:”President Clinton has fought for our values and America is better for it.” Dole has had an ambiguous relationship with religious conservatives, at times courting them, at times keeping his distance so as not to alienate moderate voters fearful of the religious right having too much influence in the Republican Party.

John Green, an expert on the religious right at the University of Akron, said in an interview Tuesday (Oct. 15) that the Dole ad, coming so late in the campaign, was a tacit admission that the GOP candidate’s base of support among religious conservatives has softened.

Green noted that various religious right leaders have been critical of Dole for not speaking more about abortion and other moral issues. Some have hinted that religious conservatives might not turn out on election day in the large numbers the Dole needs if he is to defeat Clinton.

The top story in a recent edition of”Family Issues,”a newsletter published by religious conservative James Dobson’s Focus on the Family organization in Colorado Springs, Colo., criticized Dole for not raising such issues as abortion, homosexuality and the”attack on Judeo-Christian values that’s taking place in some public schools.” Clinton, meanwhile, is doing”better than he might have expected”among religious conservatives, particularly Catholics, said Green.

In 1992, Green said, Clinton received about one-fourth of the religious conservative votes. This year, polls show he has the support of about 35 percent of religious conservatives, Green added.

In closely contested states with large numbers of religious conservatives, the added margin could be enough to swing the election in Clinton’s favor.”It makes sense for the president to air some spots on Christian radio now,”Green said.”Anything he can shave off of Dole’s side is to his advantage.” Meanwhile, Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition, the religious right’s leading political organization, denounced the Clinton Christian radio ad as”the height of hypocrisy.” Reed noted that the president had opposed the Defense of Marriage Act and”signed it under the cover of night”to minimalize press coverage.”For (Clinton) to boast about this bill to evangelical Christians while simultaneously denouncing it to gay special interest groups, is a tell-tale sign of the political schizophrenia of the Clinton campaign,”Reed said in a statement Tuesday.


In response to the criticism, Don Foley, a spokesman for the president, said the Christian radio spot was a”legitimate”response to Dole’s ad on the same stations.

MJP END RIFKIN

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