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'Raw Politics': Shhh! The candidate is praying

  • Story Highlights
  • Politicians are now expected to talk about their religious beliefs and defend them
  • Foreman says religion could be a problem for Sen. John McCain
  • Almost 80 percent of conservative Christians went for Bush in 2004
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By Tom Foreman
CNN Washington Bureau
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"Raw Politics" on "Anderson Cooper 360" delivers the latest political news with a wry sense of a humor and without spin.

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Candidates are increasingly having to defend their religious views in campaigns.

(CNN) -- Not so many years ago, polite people did not talk about sex, religion or politics. At least not in public. They had plenty to do with all three, let me assure you, but they didn't talk about it, because they knew if they did, someone would get into trouble.

On the religious front, that is largely because we recognized that any given person's religious views can be complex, often contradictory, and frequently not the same as ours.

So if you wanted to get along with your neighbors, you were better off just saying, "They're Methodists," and leaving it at that.

Now, everything has changed, especially for political figures. They are expected to talk about their religious beliefs, defend them, explain how they'll fit into their public policy decisions and when, where and how often they attend worship services.

And at the moment, that is a potential problem for Sen. John McCain.

Standing amid the smoking wreckage of his once-triumphant ties to some influential evangelical preachers, he's got to wonder now where he stands with their followers. And what he might need to say if he wants to resecure their support.

For Republicans, there is nothing else quite like the evangelical vote. Almost 80 percent of these conservative Christians went for George W. Bush in 2004, and with their help, he kept the presidency. White evangelicals produced a third of all the votes he received that year.

As the farmers say in Illinois, "Holy cow!"

The point is that John McCain pretty much needs a big fat slice of those voters if he's going to win the White House, and the fit between his views and theirs is imperfect.

McCain is generally considered a moderate. But evangelicals tend to want someone who is more consistently conservative.

McCain is against abortion rights. But he is for stem cell research.

McCain opposes gay marriage. But he opposes a constitutional amendment outlawing it.

See what I mean?

We in the media all did stories when he secured endorsements from those big evangelical pastors, saying, "He's connected with the Right! Hallelujah!" But now he's had to reject those endorsements, and no one knows what that will mean.

McCain has some things clearly in his favor, beyond those items we've already mentioned. His stance on the war in Iraq, for example.

The Pew Forum, which does some of the best study available on religious folks, has found that support for the war has remained much stronger among evangelicals than it has in the general population.

These people also show a pronounced and reinvigorated interest in helping struggling nations with food, medicine and education. McCain's foreign affairs experience could easily be seen as a plus.

And here is an often overlooked fact: Back when Mike Huckabee was making an early surge in the primaries and everyone was saying he had the evangelical vote locked up, McCain was pulling in a substantial number of evangelical votes, too. And he has since.

McCain doesn't absolutely have to do well with evangelicals. As our senior political analyst Bill Schneider points out, Republicans used to win elections without nearly so much support from the religious right. They appealed to the moderates and independents.

But that was a long time ago.

So even while McCain fights for that big, broad middle of voters, don't be surprised if you see him looking to the right. All things considered, at the moment it doesn't look like talking about religion has helped him much.

But he still may have things to say if he wants their support.

All About ReligionU.S. Presidential ElectionRepublican Party

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