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Dobson’s un-endorsement
Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson announced today that should John McCain capture the Republican Party’s nomination, Dobson most likely will not vote in November’s election:
“But what a sad and melancholy decision this is for me and many other conservatives. Should Sen. McCain capture the nomination as many assume, I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime. I certainly can’t vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life. These decisions are my personal views and do not represent the organization with which I am affiliated. They do reflect my deeply held convictions about the institution of the family, about moral and spiritual beliefs, and about the welfare of our country.”
What do you think about Dobson’s stance? Will other conservatives follow suit?
back to top63 Comments to “Dobson’s un-endorsement”
Certainly other conservatives will follow suit! And not just because Dobson is doing so – there are many who have the same convictions.
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I, for one, will not vote for McCain. So, I agree with Dobson and I am a conservative who will follow suit.
I vote not for Republicans but for candidates who hold similar beliefs as mine. Sometimes where there are no options then voting means not going to the polls.
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SCORE!
Count three out. Who else?
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Rush is saying the same thing. He’s saying he’d vote for Obama or Clinton before he’d vote for McCain…
I’m hard pressed to disagree with either Dobson or Limbaugh. Conservatives have some really nasty choices this go ’round.
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I will never, ever pull the lever for John McCain.
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This, of course, is all assuming a third-party candidate doesn’t emerge as an alternative. This would be a great year for a good candidate in the Independence Party!
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One hopes that conservatives will stay home on election day. I makes our job as Democrats much easier.
Dobson, like so many other conservatives, has elevated one issue as a litmus test. Most Americans don’t vote that way. We look at the over-all positions of a candidate.
Dobson’s position is really curious, given that John McCain has something like an 89% anti-choice voting record.
Well, I suspect Dobson is blowing smoke. The vast majority of Republicans and conservatives are going to vote for whomever the Republican nominee is.
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Dobson nails it. Hopefully, McCain will not get the nomination today. If he does, I plan to write in Romney or Fred in November.
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Anlir – Did you read Dobson’s statement?
“I am deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, voted for embryonic stem-cell research to kill nascent human beings, opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, has little regard for freedom of speech, organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters in judicial hearings, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language.”
He lists quite a few reasons he is against McCain, why do you say he ‘elevated one issue as a litmus test?’
The sad fact is, no matter how many people write in a better choice, vote for a third party candidate, or stay home; we’ll have one of two people as our next president: the two selected by the major parties.
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Lemming Family Values. Focus on the cliff.
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Dobson has less and less influence every year. As I’ve been saying for months, conservative evangelicals make up less and less of the electorate every year. The Christian Right has peaked, and will never again be as influential as they used to be. When people say evangelical, they mean Bible beleiving white Christian. That’s how the mainstream media uses it when talking about politics, and that’s how WoW uses the term. The Christian Right was a white cultural movement. But its time has passed, as whites are a smaller and samller percentage of this nation every year. On top of that, as a recent WoW articles discusses, younger evvies are trending away from conservative politics. Falwell and Kennedy are dead, Robertson’s a nutjob, and younger evvies are ignoring people like Dobson in favor of liberals like Rick Warren and Brian McLaren.
But the Christian Right isn’t completely dead yet, and Dobson still has some influence. His decision will influence a few evvies to sit it out if McCain is the nominee. Not that many, but a few. More to the point, his decision simply reflects what a few million evvies already think. They don’t need Dobson to tell them to sit it out.
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Am I the only one who finds it perplexing that Dobson (along with all the other establishment GOP talking heads) have all but completely ignored Mike Huckabee. Huckabee is the ONLY one who actually lines up with all that Focus on the Family represents (Pro-Life, Pro-Traditional Family, Christian). Why did Dobson not endorse him? Was it because he felt Huckabee was not “electable”? or was he concerned about alienating all his cronies in the GOP establishment? It’s a sad day in the Kingdom when leaders like Dobson (and Bob Jones who endorsed Romney) put political convenience above PRINCIPLE!!!
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I heard Dobson on the Dennis Prager Show. He didn’t endorse anyone. He declined to state his preference.
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It bothers me that anyone would listen to Dobson rather than examine the election for themself.
I plan on writing in Fred Thompson.
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Maybe they haven’t ignored Huckabee. Maybe they’ve looked at his record and found him lacking. Taxes, illegal immigration, and crime come to mind.
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It seems to me like this year’s election is going to come down to a vote against someone and not for someone. We will be trying to choose between the lesser of evils this time around.
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What? He gets angry and uses obscene language from time to time? Sounds like Cheney and Rove all over again.
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Kavee,
I think the bottom line for conservative Christians is the abortion issue. It trumps all the other issues by a country mile.
Just taking your “Gang of 14″ issue, whatever one can say about it, it enabled the business of the Senate to go forward. Men and women of good character on both sides of the aisle recognized that the matter of judicial appointments was poisoning the ability of the Senate to do any of it’s business. Hence the compromise. No one was totally happy with it, but it had it’s intended effect. Those individuals on the extreme ends of the policital spectrum of course derided it greatly. One gets the feeling that they were more interested in obstruction for the sake of their political agenda than in moving this country forward.
Thankfully, the majority of the American people are much more practical and middle-of-the road.
*****
MikeC,
Interesting point about Huckabee. Some day we will find out the real reason Dobson declined to endorse him. I suspect it was a political calculation, not one of principle.
There does seem to be a changing of the guard in conservative Christiandom. I think the old (Falwell, Dobson, etc.) are being eclipsed by a much less partisan leadership (Rick Warren, Bill Hybels (sp?), etc.). I think that’s a good thing.
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#12 – You must be reading Huck’s press releases rather than his record as governor of Arkansas or his statements in the campaign. He is for higher taxes, for speech censorship; he is a new version of Jimmie Carter and is running for VP with McCain.
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Night Train wrote; “When people say evangelical, they mean Bible beleiving white Christian.”
I don’t know what people Night Train knows but this applies to absolutely no evangelical I have ever met or heard of in my life. “White” has zip to do with it.
Night Train wrote; “It bothers me that anyone would listen to Dobson rather than examine the election for themself.”
Dobson said just about the same exact thing.
Try listening to him yourself Night Train and once you have listened, then examine his words and the election for yourself. That is waht he is asking us to do.
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#18 – so Dr. Dobson is lying through his teeth?
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RON PAUL!
RON PAUL!
RON PAUL!
MikeC, are yoo payin attention?
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Klasko,
I think it’s true that the Republicans are making it a vote “against” someone, and will continue to do so in the general election. For us Democrats, it’s definitely a vote “for” someone. Whether Clinton or Obama gets the nomination, I will enthusiastically vote for them. Repubicans will especially make it a vote “against” Clinton if she’s the nominee. I expect them to run an extremely negative campaign. That’s too bad – the American people deserve better than that.
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Night Train wrote; “It bothers me that anyone would listen to Dobson rather than examine the election for themself.”
I said no such thing.
Learn to read, for crying out loud.
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I agree with Dobson except for in one regard. I feel absolutely no need to declare who I will not (or never) vote for until the time comes to vote. Why paint myself into a corner and deprive myself of options for no rational reason?
I can say my piece as much as the next guy. Indeed, my criticisms of McCain are strong but they do not need voting vows or declarations to validate them.
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JUSTUS331 and IVAN THE TERRIBLE…you guys need to put down the bong and get some fresh air.
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Joel Mark – In defense of Night Train it was Night Watch you should have quoted.
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MIKEC – It is because I have principles I won’t vote for Huck or McCain; those are Reformed Christian and conservative principles – no pragmatism allowed
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As a conservative I can understand his despair and agree with his assessment that pickings are slimmer than ever before. However, not voting at all means one is equally happy with any of the candidates. I do not see how anyone can honest claim that any of the remaining Republican candidates are equally or more liberal than any of the remaining Democrat candidates.
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correction: I do not see how anyone can honest claim that all of the remaining Republican candidates are equally or more liberal than any of the remaining Democrat candidates.
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Ivan: What “principles” prevent you from voting for Huck?
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Good grief. We’re not marrying the person we vote for. We’re not asking him to join our peronal churches. And we’re not even saying he or she’s our first choice. We’re casting a ballot of preference (NOT absolute endorsement) among the reasonably electable.
The huffity-puffity can fold their holy hands admiring how clean they’ve kept them. Meanwhile everyone else will be pulling levers, many times based on grossly less careful consideration — “gosh, he sure has a upliftingly hopefully changy way about him.”
Again I say, good grief. It’s a civil election, not the eucharist.
SG
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NIGHT TRAIN wrote; “I said no such thing. Learn to read, for crying out loud.”
Sir, it is not as easy for me to read as it is for some. Due to a rare retinal condition, I have had four laser surgeries (two in each eye) on my eyes leaving several permanent blind spots. I am slightly sight impaired. It is easy for me to look at the word “night” and not see the term next to it at all. It was an honest mistake for, in your words, “crying out loud.”
Night Watch, I see that it is you that Dobson agrees with, not Night Train. Let’s all examine the election for ourselves. Sorry for the confusion.
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Let’s not forget the election is still 272 days away. Way more than has happened already can happen in far less time than that. This is the prime problem with such an exaggerated campaign period.
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I won’t vote for McCain, either. I hope he doesn’t win the nomination, because I’m fairly sure he won’t win the election–and while I may prefer him to Hillary Clinton, I don’t prefer him enough to give him my vote. If a Democrat wins, at least the Republicans in the House and Senate will have someone to fight against; if McCain wins, they’ll be lost, without a leader or an enemy. I don’t trust him on any issue, even Supreme Courth justice nominations, and thus I will not vote for him. In other words, I have a bit of a problem voting for “the lesser of two evils,” though I have done so in the past…but with McCain I’m not even positive he is a lesser evil.
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Sir, it is not as easy for me to read as it is for some. Due to a rare retinal condition, I have had four laser surgeries (two in each eye) on my eyes leaving several permanent blind spots. I am slightly sight impaired.
I’m sorry to hear that.
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And I’ll keep that in mind should you make a similar mistake in the future. Sorry for the overreaction, but I’m constantly being accused of things I didn’t say, and having things others said attributed to me, by people whose only excuse is poor reading skills.
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For all my conservative friends, I can only say, been there done that. Standing on the outside won’t give you a voice. Letting others in the Party carry on, won’t expand your voice locally. It is a team effort, after all.
As a Dem, we’ve been through this. Dragged our heels, got clobbered, and indulged our fantasies (take Nader. Please.) This is not a pretty place for you. Usually this disease takes several cycles and a bit more bloodshed.
While prophecy is always more pleasurable (and certainly more self-righteous), winning elections takes a certain willingness to walk behind the party animal and pick up the “leavings” — generalists are necessarily messy.
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Why would Dr. Dobson encourage people to not vote?
The Constitution Party offered a great candidate four years ago, but people thought it to be a waste of a vote to vote for a third party candidate. We’ve got to change from the two party system sometime; perhaps now is the time. I’m hoping Alan Keyes will move to the Constitution Party along with a lot of other conservatives.
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Alan Keyes likes to rant and rave about abortion and gays, but he’s no conservative. When he ran for Senate as a carpetbagger against Obama, he said he believes every 18 year old, male and female, should have to perform two years of military or other government service. He also declared that blacks shouldn’t have to pay income taxes for several years, as reparations for slavery. The man’s a crazed neocon lunatic, but because he rails against abortion and gays he’s supposedly “conservative.”
Anyone who thinks everyone should have to be a government slave for two years is an insane liberal, no matter his other positions.
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MIKEC- thanks for asking for reasons not to vote for Huck:
To start with his deal with McCain today in West Virginia which points to his ethics – Judicial Watch named him as one of the 10 most corrupt politicians for 2007.
Add to that he is totally clueless on foreign policy, he is an open borders guy, his clemency issues, his tax and spend record in Arkansas, his willingness to bring back the Fairness Doctrine and the fact he seems to be Jimmy Carter re duex.
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Social conservatives including Dobson are having a hard time with McCain, though in a general election most of them will come around for the reasons that Lyndsey Graham explains:
“He’s the only conservative who has a prayer of winning,” Graham said, as he emerged from a revolving door and headed towards McCain’s campaign bus, “The Straight Talk Express.” “His 24-year pro-life record didn’t change in his 40s or 50s…He’s reliable. He’s conservative. He’s electable. Social, fiscal conservatism, and electability, commander-in-chief qualities beyond any. If a conservative is worried about the next generation of Supreme Court nominees, like I am, if they are worried about Clinton or Obama becoming president, withdrawing from Iraq, raising your taxes, increasing federal spending, and changing the course of the country, then they ought to get behind John McCain, because this is not an academic debate. This is serious business.”
When sensible voters in the general election take a close look at Obama and Clinton, especially their defeatist view on Irag, McCain will be seen as the better choice, much to the dismay of the netroots wingnuts.
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PeterLeavitt-
I hardly consider myself to be a netroot wingnut. McCain supports fetal stem cell research – hardly pro-life. Principles must take precedence over the pragmatism of electability. Given his record it is sheer folly to call McCain a conservative and reliable. His reliability is to do his own thing and give conservatives another thumb in the eye – which he has done twice today already. I say this as an AZ (R) who once supported McCain.
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Am I the only one who thinks that an unendorsement from Dobson makes it more likely that I will give McCain more consideration?
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I won’t vote for John McCain. As for the smug reactions of our liberal friends (”Oh, goody! Stay home.”), I believe that America deserves Obama or Clinton, if we cannot get a conservative Republican nominated. And the beautiful thing is that four years of Obama or Clinton (plus our protest at the polls) would swing the country so far back to the right, your smug grins would disappear.
My plan:
I would either vote for the Libertarian, the Constitutionalist, or an independent. That might be Alan Keyes or Fred Thompson or Ron Paul (or somebody else). And writing in a candidate would definitely be an option.
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And now we learn that since McCain saw he wasn’t going to win in WV, he instructed his supporters to give their delegates to Huckabee…Huckabee wins.
Thanks alot Huck-huggers.
Your guy is going to get McCain nominated intentionally. Looks like I was right about the back room deal between that liberal hick, and his companion, Lefty McCain.
Truly disgusting.
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I believe that Dobson is willing to let Democrats win the White House. He’s lying through his teeth when he says he’s heartbroken.
If Democrats had any sense, they wouldn’t want the White House either. I’m not sure if Americans deserve a change. Rub their noses in four more years of Republican rule!
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Night Train:
Not sure I believe all that stuff attributed to Keyes–sources? The mandatory military service seems unlikely, the reparations exceedingly so. Unless you list some good sources, I will assume you have bad ones or are confusing him with someone else.
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You can assume what you want. I guess it’s a lot easier than spending 30 seconds on Google.
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Well, it looks like McCain is really racking it up, with Huckabee coming in second. Huckabee is projected to win 5 southern states.
Of course, it’s way to early in California and the other western states. If McCain takes California, I’d say it’s over for Romney.
Watching Bay Buchannan (Romney campaign) making vicious personal attacks on Huckabee tonight was priceless!
We’ll see if Rush and Dobson are blowing hot air or if they will do their part in putting a Democrat in the White House in November.
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Conservatives dissappointed in our choices, listen and heed: DO NOT stay home!!! I believe the RNC will learn a bitter lesson this year in being the reason the Dems win the White House. If we stay home, they will continue to give us lousy choices. If we vote in droves for 3rd party candidates or for Dems, the RNC will have to listen, especially if we all send them a letter telling them why we refuse to vote for a Democrat in disguise. Write to the RNC (Republican National Committee) at:
310 First Street, Washington, D. C. 20003
Call: 202.863.8500
Fax: 202.863.8820
Email: info@gop.com
Flood them with requests for real Conservative candidates who stand for the US and those values and issues that got Ronald Reagan elected in two landslides.
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Since I’m such a nice guy, Cheryl, here you go, from MSNBC
http://snipurl.com/1z2la
And here’s where he told Benedictine University students that he’s “always” been in favor of two years of mandatory government “service”.
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Here’s the link for the second one. I left it out so the software wouldn’t block it.
http://snipurl.com/1z2m3
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Thanks, Night Train.
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Judgmental Scroop Moth – 47,
It hardly gets more inappropriately disrespectful and disdainful than for Scroop Moth to respond to a person (SM does not even know) who expresses heartbreak and for Scroop Moth to accuse him of “lying through his teeth when he says he’s heartbroken.”
Where do these liberals get their cyrystal balls to gaze right into the depths of the hearts and minds of conservatives? Where does this hatred come from, Scroop Moth, and where will it take you?
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Cheryl, I have also heard Keyes talk about his support for reparations.
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You’re welcome, Cheryl. Sometimes I can be unnecessarily belligerent.
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Oh this is too rich.
Huckabee may turn out to not be the buddy McCain thought he was.
liberal republicans stabbing each other in the back.
I think…
I really think..
That the Shmuckster thinks he can win, now.
So much for the WV back-room deal between “buddies”.
Watch Huck come out attacking McCain, tomorrow.
It is hilariously sickening
(if that makes sense)
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JOEL MARK: a person (SM does not even know)
Actually, Joel, I do. I’ve read one of his books, listened to a couple of his radio commentaries, and read private correspondence between him and a Yale biologist regarding intelligent design.
Beneath the mask, there was nothing but expedience.
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McCain is truly a tragedy for the Republican Party. It sickens me that this coming election will feature two despicable, evil, liberals who do their best to harm the rights I hold most dear.
The only silver lining that I can find to this horrible, impending tragedy is that it took Jimmy Carter to usher in Ronald Reagon. Maybe we’re on the verge of that…
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What’s happening, I think, is that voters are saying they’re really tired of leaders who take hardline ideological stands.
For all you say about Clinton and Obama being “liberal,” they’re really pretty moderate. The Democratic voters eliminated the most liberal people in the field (Kucinich, for one) early on.
And the Republican side, while the conservatives are not completely out of it yet, the voters are going big for the least hardline conservative available.
That tells me people want a president who really will be a uniter, not one who will be uncompromising, either liberal or conservative.
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STEVEG,
Doesn’t Obama have a 100% liberal voting record? Doesn’t he take a hardline stand for abortion? for a universal health care program? for civil unions? One of the few against a military response to Iraq.
As for the Republicans, I don’t think they are necessarily looking for a uniter, they are just afraid of losing to the Democrats. They would rather have a liberal president with an R next to his name than one with a D.
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SBG: That’s probably true about Obama, but look at who else was in the field that’s not anymore. Kucinich. Edwards.
Obama is seen as a bridge-builder who is able to work with people regardless of differences in political beliefs. (whether or not that’s an accurate perception is a different question, but that’s the perception.)
Clinton is less so — she is polarizing — but she both benefits and suffers from name recognition. (Some people love her and some people hate her because of who she is, regardless of specifics.)
McCain has a similar factor working his favor. He’s mild-mannered and doesn’t seem the type to draw hard ideological lines.
Obviously there are some voters, both conservative and liberal, who would prefer someone to take a hard stand for their ideologies. But the majority of voters, if the primary results so far are any indication, want someone who is going to lead the country, not just the conservative or the liberals.
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