Saturday, January 05, 2008


On Huckabee's win in Iowa...


Very exciting stuff, a show that the Christian social conservatives have unified in large part behind a candidate and refused to be cowed by the smear attacks and arrogant head patting from the establishment GOP. The hand-wringing and moaning on National Review since Iowa has been unseemly. The truth remains that Huckabee is not a country club Republican (not that there is anything wrong with that), and he brings out lots of people to pull the lever. Romney can not, and will not, rally the party base like Huckabee and because of that and in spite of his spending a ton of his own money, he will not be the nominee. In the internet age, money to buy TV ads is becoming less important. The message goes right out, virtually for free, via email and blogs. Look at goof ball Ron Paul, he raises tons of money and gets his followers into a froth with virtually no effort at all. I despise John Edwards but he made an interesting quip that we are holding an election, not an auction. Word of mouth among evangelicals will make a ton of impact for Huckabee in South Carolina and Michigan.


Dr. Mohler posted an excellent analysis of the Iowa results, and made an especially good point here:


The rhetoric of the race -- and the rhetoric of many evangelicals -- is disturbing. This race is important and necessarily so. We are talking about the next President of the United States, after all. But evangelicals have invested far too much hope in the political process. No government can make people good, transform humanity, or eliminate sin. The political sphere is important, but never ultimate. Jesus Christ is Lord -- and He will be Lord regardless of who sits in the Oval Office.


There is always the danger of assuming that electing the right man will make everything right in the world and accomplish all of our goals. The reality is that the only way to win the war is to win people for Christ.


(As an aside, the word is out that Albert Mohler will be nominated for president of the Southern Baptist convention, something I would obviously support whole-heartedly. I am not sure the SBC will elect a Calvinist as President yet, but given the almost universal respect of Dr. Mohler it may happen.)

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