California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joins Rudy Giuliani as another “moderate” Republican to back John McCain. Drudge is also reporting that Nancy Reagan privately supports McCain’s presidential bid.

And did you see the debate from the Reagan Library last night? Was it just me, or did they all look like they were sitting behind too-small, elementary school–size desks?

Hillary Clinton won big over Barack Obama (but gaining no delegates … for now) in Florida’s Democratic primary, while John McCain edged out Mitt Romney for all of the Sunshine State’s GOP delegates, pushing him into the overall lead. Rumor has it that Rudy Giuliani, who finished a distant third in Florida, will drop out and endorse McCain tomorrow. On to Super Tuesday!

Hillary Clinton’s favorite Scripture: “Faith without works is dead.” Rudy Giulianis’ creed: faith in God, the American spirit, work, and himself.

A Pew Forum poll finds that voters view Clinton and Giuliani as the least religious presidential candidates. The Christian Science Monitor gives a glimpse into Clinton and Giuliani’s religious beliefs.

Clinton, a Methodist, said her church’s Social Principles are a “prod” to her future actions: “We can find direction, if we look to the church’s call to strengthen families and renew our schools and encourage policies that enable each child to have a chance to fulfill his or her God-given potential.” Clinton was active in Washington prayer groups both as First Lady and as a senator. She said a Paul Tillich sermon on sin and grace helped her through the Lewinsky scandal.

Clinton has called it “a mistake for the Democrats not to engage evangelical Christians on their own turf,” and she hired an evangelical Christian to direct outreach to religious voters. Some, like columnist Cal Thomas, are cynical about Clinton’s motives: “This is a politician speaking, not a person who believes in the central tenets of Christianity.” Others, like Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, say Clinton’s dedication to a social gospel seems “authentic.”

Giuliani, a Catholic, attended parochial schools and twice considered the priesthood. He says he has “very, very strong views on religion” but emphasizes that his religious beliefs are private: “I think in a democracy and in a government like ours, my religion is my way of looking at God, and other people have other ways of doing it, and some people don’t believe in God. I think that’s unfortunate. I think their life would be a lot fuller if they did, but they have that right.”

He has used the Gospel story of the adulterous woman to rebuke those who criticize his personal life. He has said that “most Americans” believe human rights come from God, “and they’re not just ours. They’ve been put there for everyone.” He believes God guided him to write a book on leadership that prepared him for 9/11.

The candidates clashed on religion during their 2000 Senate race. Ironically, Giuliani (the one who keeps faith private) attacked Clinton for her “hostility toward America’s religious traditions.” Clinton (the one whose faith prods action) responded, “’I am outraged that he would inject religion into this campaign in any form whatsoever.”

Mike Huckabee frightens Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post, and he wants you to be scared, too. Not so scary are Rudy Giuliani, who he calls “cosmopolitan” and “enlightened” for his views on abortion, immigration, and gun control, and Mitt Romney, who Robinson refers to as “a pretty reasonable guy.” But as for Huckabee, who he labels as the “anti-reason” candidate, Robinson writes:
(more…)

A man took several Hillary Clinton campaign workers hostage on Friday, claiming to have a bomb strapped to his chest. Police took the man into custody, and Clinton met with the hostages and their families: “It appears he is someone who was in need of help and sought attention in absolutely the wrong way. … It was for me and my campaign an especially tense and difficult day.”

Rudy Giuliani is also having a tense time explaining his mayoral spending practices. Instead of billing the police department for mayoral security expenses, the city spread the bill among obscure city offices. Much of the interest centers on Giuliani’s visits to Southampton, New York, when he was having an affair with Judith Nathan, who owned a condominium there. Giuliani dismissed the allegations as an old story and a political hit job.

A new HIV testing method yields a higher government estimate for annual HIV infections. For a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has calculated 40,000 new HIV infections each year, but this year the count is 50% higher — between 55,000 and 60,000. The new method enables epidemiologists to distinguish between new infections and long-standing ones. President Bush called for an additional $30 billion to fight AIDS worldwide.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has threatened to cut off oil exports to the U.S. if it questions the results of next Sunday’s vote. The referendum would do away with term limits and cede Chavez control of the country’s Central Bank, giving him control of Venezuela’s economic policy and, he says, enabling him to move towards socialism.

Another Sunday vote may tighten Vladimir Putin’s grip on power. Putin’s United Russia party should win by a landslide, despite the fact that Russian liberals are decrying Putin’s televised pre-poll speech urging Russians to vote for the United Russia party. One leader called for equal television time and called Putin’s speech “a flagrant violation of the legislation, an abuse of office in the interests of one party.”

Hollywood writers are still stewing and striking. Producers attempted a compromise but writers rejected the new proposals, saying that they were a public relations ploy that failed to meet the guild’s core demands.

Readers: Post links to news-worthy articles we may have overlooked!

Why is Mike Huckabee, despite a lack of support from some supposed evangelical kingmakers, picking up sizeable evangelical backing? It’s because he apparently has the spiritual leanings of a George W. Bush but the ability to articulate them that Bush lacks.

If you missed last night’s YouTube Republican presidential candidate debate, check out the responses of three hopefuls after a video questioner thrust forward a Bible and aggressively asked, “Do you believe every word of this book?”

Giuliani and Romney both sputtered and worked hard to pick out their words carefully (note Giuliani’s mention of “modern context” and Romney’s non-mention of the Book of Mormon). Huckabee seemed relaxed and authentic. Here’s the transcript from CNN:

Emcee Anderson Cooper: Mayor Giuliani?

Huckabee: Do I need to help you out, Mayor, on this one?

(Laughter)

(Applause)

Giuliani: Wait a second, you’re the minister. You’re going to help me out on this one.

Huckabee: I’m trying to help you out.

Giuliani: OK. The reality is, I believe it, but I don’t believe it’s necessarily literally true in every single respect. I think there are parts of the Bible that are interpretive. I think there are parts of the Bible that are allegorical. I think there are parts of the Bible that are meant to be interpreted in a modern context.

So, yes, I believe it. I think it’s the great book ever written. I read it frequently. I read it very frequently when I’ve gone through the bigger crises in my life, and I find great wisdom in it, and it does define to a very large extent my faith. But I don’t believe every single thing in the literal sense of Jonah being in the belly of the whale, or, you know, there are some things in it that I think were put there as allegorical.

Cooper: Governor Romney?

Romney: I believe the Bible is the word of God, absolutely. And I try…

(Applause)

… I try to live by it as well as I can, but I miss in a lot of ways. But it’s a guide for my life and for hundreds of millions, billions of people around the world. I believe in the Bible.

Cooper: Does that mean you believe every word?

Romney: You know — yes, I believe it’s the word of God, the Bible is the word of God.

The Bible is the word of God. I mean, I might interpret the word differently than you interpret the word, but I read the Bible and I believe the Bible is the word of God. I don’t disagree with the Bible. I try to live by it.

Cooper: Governor Huckabee?

Huckabee: Sure. I believe the Bible is exactly what it is. It’s the word of revelation to us from God himself.

(Applause)

And the fact is that when people ask do we believe all of it, you either believe it or you don’t believe it. But in the greater sense, I think what the question tried to make us feel like was that, well, if you believe the part that says “Go and pluck out your eye,” well, none of us believe that we ought to go pluck out our eye. That obviously is allegorical.

But the Bible has some messages that nobody really can confuse and really not left up to interpretation. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

And as much as you’ve done it to the least of these brethren, you’ve done it unto me. Until we get those simple, real easy things right, I’m not sure we ought to spend a whole lot of time fighting over the other parts that are a little bit complicated.

And as the only person here on the stage with a theology degree, there are parts of it I don’t fully comprehend and understand, because the Bible is a revelation of an infinite god, and no finite person is ever going to fully understand it. If they do, their god is too small.

Regardless of how you feel about Pat Robertson, you have to appreciate his blunt prioritization: “To me,” he said in his endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for president, “the overriding issue before the American people is the defense of our population from the blood lust of Islamic terrorists. Our second goal should be the control of massive government waste and crushing federal deficits.”

Left off the list, among competing priorities for Christians, was stopping the practice of murdering the unborn. Giuliani is, though he downplays it as the Republican primaries near, in favor of allowing the practice. How inconvenient.

Unless, that is, one believes with Robertson that protecting our hides and pocketbooks is more important than protecting defenseless innocents. I wonder, however, if those are even really his priorities, or if they are simply the best way to dress up a fundamental fact driving many Christians to the Giuliani camp, which is that he is beginning to represent the best hope of defeating Hillary Clinton. I’m hard-pressed to think of any subject more likely to send sweet little church ladies into a fit of profanity than that woman.

Perhaps this is uncharitable to Pat Robertson, though I’m not sure which casts him in a more damning light: elevating self-protection and tax rates above protecting the unborn, or simply listing the selling points of the guy he’s backing, not because of the man’s principles, but because he embodies the best chance of beating a despised opponent and maintaining a venal party’s grip on executive power.

This being politics, of course, we are urged to be practical — the only perfect candidate is Jesus, after all, and when he finally returns there ain’t going to be no election. What’s more, there’s only so much a pro-life president can do, anyway. Back the candidate with the best chance of beating the bad guys, is the implicit message, though after numerous sex scandals, a pernicious addiction to federal earmarks, and failure to enact meaningful reform in virtually any policy area, I’m beginning to wonder if the party evangelicals have backed for years is any better than the party we routinely demonize. It’s not so clear to me, in other words, that it’s pragmatic to remain loyal to a band of partisans who make a mockery of Christ every time they refer to themselves as Christians.

What’s more, why all this concern with practicality? It’s always fascinating to hear people who claim to believe in the parting of the Red Sea, the feeding of the 5,000, and the Resurrection, among other natural impossibilities, wax eloquent about the imperative of practicality whenever elections roll around. If Christians have some sort of mandate to be active in the public arena, then at the very least it seems we ought to bring Christ along with us. Where in the Gospels are we called to stop government waste? How does that squeeze out protecting the voiceless? Are we called to obsess over our own survival? Are we called to embrace evil because it is lesser? What pathetic witnesses we make, when begin calculating electability quotients, and lending our names to those who oppose our fundamental beliefs, out of a desire for protection.

But perhaps I’m being impractical. We wouldn’t want to stand on principles only to see a heathen elected, would we? Or worse yet, someone who might raise our taxes? Standing on principle might mean the Muslims get us. We’d be martyred, for crying out loud, and all because we couldn’t compromise a little. Heaven forbid, and let the unborn fend for themselves.

During a town-hall meeting yesterday, presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said he thinks Democrats are going to flip-flop again about the Iraq war, this time agreeing that it was the right decision. His comments seemed directed in particular at Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, who both voted for the initial invasion in 2003: “I think they’re going to change their minds. I think the verdict of history is going to be that it was the right decision.” I personally agree that history will prove the Iraq invasion was the right decision, but as far as Democrats like Clinton and Edwards ever concurring? I think that is highly debatable.

Hillary Clinton has won the hearts of 50% of Democrats. Only one presidential candidate – Ted Kennedy – has won 50% support and then lost his party’s nomination. Clinton is also beating Barack Obama in the money race. She has $35 million in her purse. Obama has $32 million.

John McCain and Rudy Giuliani say if they became president, they would be prepared to use military force against Iran. Russian President Vladimir Putin says don’t try it.

Sen. Larry Craig – still refusing to resign after his arrest for soliciting sex in an airport bathroom – blames Mitt Romney for his woes: “He not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again.”

Retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez condemns the Iraq war, skewering “incompetent” national leadership and calling it “a nightmare with no end in sight.” (Read his speech here.) He had sharp words for the media, too: “You are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war.” Bill O’Reilly responds to the media charges. The Pentagon says they’re still “comfortable with the strategy” the U.S. is pursuing in Iraq.

The U.S. housing market is experiencing its worst slump in 16 years. Treasury Chief Henry Paulson called it “the most significant current risk to our economy.”

Good news for Americans’ health: US cancer death rates fell 2.1 percent each year from 2001 to 2004, and Stanford researchers developed a blood test that may diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease.

Maureen Dowd lets Stephen Colbert write her New York Times op-ed. Colbert quips, “Bad things are happening in countries you shouldn’t have to think about. It’s all George Bush’s fault, the vice president is Satan, and God is gay.”

As presidential candidates, Rudy Giuliani and John Kerry have something in common: Both would be denied communion by Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis. As was the case with Kerry in ’04, Burke said he would refuse communion to Giuliani or any other pro-abortion candidate. Giuliani responded: “Archbishops have a right to their opinion, you know. There’s freedom of religion in this country. There’s no established religion, and archbishops have a right to their opinion. Everybody has a right to their opinion.”