The big winner of Sunday's Compassion Forum was the Democratic Party. Let's face facts folks. It's the Democrats who are getting down in the weeds and talking about God, faith, the Bible, etc. Don't think for a minute that it won't translate into extra votes come November 2008.

 

Think about what went down Sunday night. We heard talk about the Holy Spirit, Jesus, Ester, the Prophets, etc. I mean all we were missing was the altar call!! I was ready for one of the moderators to break out in "tongues". Now that would have been breaking news!!

 

What the Democrats are doing here is taking the faith issue and defining it in their own terms. For so long we heard Republican politicians trumpeting the life and marriage issues on the national stage. But now, it’s more of the social justice issues. (Poverty, climate change, etc)

 

Look, the reality is at the presidential level, Republican candidates, for the most part have not engaged on the faith issue. Mike Huckabee has, so has Sam Brownback and yes, Alan Keyes. But c’mon. No top tier candidates like McCain, Giuliani or Romney showed up at the Value Voters debate last fall. Yet Obama and Clinton show up to this forum and tackle the tough questions. Heck, this is the second time in a year they’ve done something like this.

 

As for Obama and Clinton, their answers aren’t going to satisfy everyone but by not backing away from answering very personal questions and sitting there on “the hot seat”, they get credit.

 

As for Hillary Clinton, we once again saw a softer side of her. She’s not going to win over the folks who already hate her but for the ones who are still thinking about her as President, the softer side can be an appealing pull. She seemed at ease for the most part as she handled some very difficult questions. Folks, you don’t study a policy briefing book to prepare for a forum like this. You really have to speak from the heart. You have no choice. Hillary never had a “Mitt Romney moment” tonight. Remember when Romney was asked if he believed every word of the Bible was true? Romney had the deer in the headlights look. Not a good moment for Romney. Watch it here. Hillary had no stumbles at all.

 

Barack Obama also handled the night well. It seemed like every moment he could he made sure everyone knew that he was a “devout Christian” or part of the “Christian community”. After the “cling to religion” line, it was a good move. I also liked the way he fought back on the “elitist’ charge by emphasizing his community organizing and Church roots. On the abortion issue, he was also able to gently rebuke pro-choicers in the way they discount the moral component of the issue. That seemed to be a nice olive branch to pro-lifers.

 

As for John McCain, well what can you say? A missed opportunity. My guess is he’ll get another chance in a Compassion Forum when it’s just him and ONE Democrat, not two. Look, John McCain throwing around Bible verses is not his thing. That’s kind of like me eating black olives. I can do it but I might throw up. McCain could have come here and won over many Evangelicals by contrasting himself on the life issue with the pro-choice Obama and Clinton. He could have touted his 24 year pro-life voting record and gone to bat for pro-lifers. It would have been a good moment for McCain and endeared him to some of his Evangelical skeptics. Would of. Could of. Should of.

 

Finally, (I know this is a long post) a quick shout out to Faith and Public Life, the group that put on this Compassion Forum. Kudos to Katie Barge and the gang over there who are really trying to start a new dialogue with Evangelicals across the spectrum. The group isn’t just trying to ram the progressive agenda down people’s throats. Conservative Evangelicals are fully welcome.

 

 

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