Opinion
Romney’s Mormonism
By janshipps — February 4, 2008
When LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley died last week, Mitt Romney broke the non-stop campaigning he was doing in preparation for super-Tuesday and traveled to Salt Lake City for Saturday’s funeral observances. For those familiar with the Mormon tradition, the candidate’s decision to attend the funeral was not a surprise.
But who will they vote for?
By Mark Silk — February 3, 2008
Nicholas Kristof shows evangelicals the love.
Evangelical Democrats
By Mark Silk — February 2, 2008
On the eve of Super Tuesday, Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean is agitating for an exit poll question asking Democratic voters if they consider themselves born again or evangelical Christians. He would like to give the lie to the popular belief that (white) evangelicals only vote Republican. Of course, in general elections at least […]
Islamobashing
By Mark Silk — February 1, 2008
Juan Cole has a critique in Salon of the anti-Islamic rhetoric of the GOP candidates. As he notes, President Bush effectively turned American Muslims into Democrats. How much difference it will make beating up on “Islamofascism” and its cognates is not yet clear. But given that Americans remain honor-bound to respect Islam as a legitimate […]
Meaningful No More
By Mark Silk — February 1, 2008
In one of his widely circulated emails, Tikkun editor and “spiritual progressive” Michael Lerner, who once sold Hillary Clinton on the Politics of Meaning, more or less endorses Obama. As in: Obama is a spiritual progressive. He believes that human beings are equally valuable whether they are white or black, American or Asian or African […]
Obama and the Jews
By Mark Silk — January 31, 2008
My colleague Ron Kiener has an excellent analysis on his blog of Obama’s “Jewish problem,” making use of the Florida exit polls. There does seem to be a widespread impression that Obama is soft on support for Israel, fueled in no small part by ugly emails circulating around the Internet. The organized Jewish community clearly […]
What Hinckley Begat
By rvineis — January 31, 2008
Time’s Dan van Biema has a piece on the significant legacy of LDS President Gordon Hinckley. The article relies on Spiritual Politics contributor Jan Shipps’ expertise and hypothesizes that without Hinckley a Mormon’s presidential campaign would not gain traction outside LDS locales. van Biema on Romney: "But were it not for Hinckley’s relentless 20-year publicity […]
Noo Yawk
By Mark Silk — January 31, 2008
New York City is an ethno-religious wonderland, and for a little look into what’s going on there in the run-up to Super Tuesday, take a look at this, from Daily News blogger Elizabeth Benjamin.
What Happened to Huck?
By Mark Silk — January 31, 2008
Vanity Fair‘s James Wolcott has this dispeptic assessment of the Huckabee failure: The zombie march of Giuliani’s and Fred Thompson’s maladroit campaigns will entrance political dissecters for seasons to come but less remarked is the misguided direction the Huckabee campaign took after its win in Iowa. Despite his financial disadvantages, Huckabee had a real opportunity […]
At the Reagan Library
By Mark Silk — January 31, 2008
God made one fleeting appearance at the Republican debate last night, when (surprise!) Mike Huckabee said, “[P]eople in this country I think are grateful to God they’re in a land that people are trying to break into and not one they’re trying to break out of.” Now that caucus and primary results have come in […]
Hillary and the Duke
By Mark Silk — January 30, 2008
For anyone interested in the author’s secular reflections on the social construction of candidates’ biographies.
Mitt’s Last Chance
By Mark Silk — January 30, 2008
Hugh Hewitt, fighting for Romney till the last dog dies, puts the best face he can on the Florida results and argues that a stop McCain effort will require Huckabee’s people to look down the road and switch to the Mittster. The shadow of the ’96 Dole campaign will fall on McCain now, and the […]
COMMENTARY: A failure to plan is a plan for failure
By Tom Ehrich — January 30, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) It might be that church is the last thing financially challenged Americans jettison as they grapple with $10-a-gallon gasoline. But church leaders would be unwise to count on it. Even among loyal churchgoers, the looming recession could test their willingness to support church as they know it. As times […]
Huckabust
By Mark Silk — January 29, 2008
OK, according to the Florida exit poll, Huckabee got 32 percent of the white born-again/evangelical vote, Romney 31 percent, McCain 26 percent, and Giuliani 6 percent. In a word, Huck did worse among white evangelicals than he’s done in any state thus far; and white evangelicals showed that they are increasingly prepared to vote for […]
Mitt and Ralph
By Mark Silk — January 29, 2008
That’s Reed. Bottom line: Religious Right bigs prefer Romney to McCain.
