Sorry, I hated the idea of faith based initiatives when Bush was president and now Obama is taking them even farther.

Guess what, the fact that he says he is going to protect the separation of church and state is meaningful only to those with a full glass of kool-aid handy.

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With the rise of Mike Huckabee to the top of polls in the race for the Republican nomination for president, the pile of candidates rejected by the religious right is a roster of formerly regarded GOP front-runners or political saviors: Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson.

[John McCain's recently acquired Joe-mentum is a joke, and McCain, of the top four Republican candidates, remains the least acceptable to the religious right, as he deviates slightly from being mean-spirited and dogmatic.]

So, will Huckabee sustain his frontrunner status, propped up by the religious right?

Let's hope so, because the religious right has worn out its welcome among the center of American politics.

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Via http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2007/10/ top-republicans-still-wrong-for.html

The religious right's two-day gathering in D.C. demonstrates the enduring political trouble for the top-tier Republicans running for the GOP presidential nomination.

As reported in the New York Times, the politically significant straw poll taken at the "values voters" conference found three of the top four Republican candidates performing dismally, with Fred D. Thompson at 9.8 percent, Rudy Giuliani finishing second to last with less than two percent of the vote, and Senator John McCain finishing dead-last.

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[Cross-posted to Daily Kos, Street Prophets, and my unread, poorly-updated blog]

From a recent ABC poll (WARNING: PDF which I have had some problem opening in my browser, but can "save as" and open as a separate file):

More of a swing group is white Catholics. Their preference for Democrats has shifted from an 18-point margin in August to a mere two-point margin in September and back to a 22-point margin now. Where they end up is essential; along with independents, white Catholics historically have been a decisive group in election outcomes.

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