The old guard of the religious right hath assembled in Denver, even as the hated Obama was taking in the sights in Colorado Springs, and announced its support of the hitherto loathed John McCain. Have they changed their minds, and discovered hitherto unknown Virtue in the GOP Standard Bearer Presumptive. Not quite.
“None of these people want to meet their maker knowing that they didn’t do everything they could to keep Barack Obama from being president,” one attendee told Time‘s Michael Scherer. “You’ve got these two people running for president. One of them is going to become president. That’s the perspective. That that’s the whole discussion.”
Was McCain on hand to receive the word? No, he was off in Colombia on an errand obscure while his campaign was all shook up. For his part, James Dobson did not deign to join the throng, evidently figuring that Obama might steal a few chickens if he did not stay home to guard the house. So there they were, 100 strong, the likes of the Eagle Forum’s antique doyenne Phyllis Schlafly and Falwell minion Mat Staver and Phil Burress of the Great 2006 Ohio Religious Right Collapse and Charisma magazine’s Steve Stang, who came away from his close encounter with Obama so anxiety-ridden. Can their summons to fight the lesser of two evils stir their quondam troops to battle?