Posted on 12/14/2007 9:39:26 PM PST by GOP_Lady
The Pulpit and the Potemkin Village By PEGGY NOONAN December 15, 2007
What is happening in Iowa is no longer boring but big, and may prove huge. The Republican race looks -- at the moment -- to be determined primarily by one thing, the question of religious faith. In my lifetime faith has been a significant issue in presidential politics, but not the sole determinative one. Is that changing? If it is, it is not progress.
Mike Huckabee is in the lead due, it appears, to voter approval of the depth and sincerity of his religious beliefs as lived out in his ministry as an ordained Southern Baptist. He flashes "Christian leader" over his picture in commercials; he asserts his faith is "mainstream"; his surrogates speak of Mormonism as "strange" and "definitely a factor." Mr. Huckabee said this summer that a candidate's faith is "subject to question," "part of the game."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
There is nothing Huckabee offers more than any other candidate except sweet talk and head aches.
The media’s love for Hucabee is a big negative.
What, precisely, is your point.
Yep. It is quite troubling, and it's what first made me question his credibility.
if it’s changing it’s because the left is defining the variables for its own advantage.
From Ms. Noonan’s article here:
“The great question: Does it make Mr. Huckabee, does it seal his rise, that he has acted in such a manner? Or does it damage him?”
This title is highly provocative.
Comparing the pulpit to the Potemkin Village is major slap to religion.
Yesterday, in a pulled thread, you played the "I'm a Catholic" card in apparent defense of a Mormon.
I'm calling you out.
What are you trying to say?
Is religious commentary in politics valid or not?
I rarely agree with Noonan lately, but I share her concern. I want my politics to be about politics. When I look back over history, the great presidents debated war, abolition, states’ rights, taxes. They didn’t get into My-soul-is-cleaner-than-yours religious exchanges. I guess that makes me a bigot, and the fact that such silliness even comes up is troubling, and it should be.
Peggy got the measure of the man.
“Mr. Huckabee has of course announced that he apologizes to Mr. Romney, which allowed him to elaborate on his graciousness and keep the story alive. He should have looked abashed. Instead he betrayed the purring pleasure of ‘a Christian with four aces,’ in Mark Twain’s words.”
But I think he is already ruing the day he coyly played that religion card. Its the beginning of the end for the Huckster.
“I want my politics to be about politics.”
Me too. If this is the best the Republican party can do, I predict he will get clobbered.
What NIE?
Let too many violent, dangerous criminals out of prison early.
Serious questions about his education resume. (Personal character)
BINGO!!!
“Comparing the pulpit to the Potemkin Village is major slap to religion.”
It is not valid to compare just any pulpit to a Potemkin village. It is however, entirely appropriate to compare a self-proclaimed Christian leader to his record, and use the analogy of a Potempkin village to say that the record does not match the rhetoric.
Neither Ms. Noonan nor GOP lady are comparing all religious people, all Christians, all evangelicals or all Southern Baptists to a Potemkin village. They are comparing Mike Huckabee to one, and it is a valid, perhaps even brilliant comparison.
When you read the article, the Pulpit refers to Huckabee’s campaign; and the Potemkin village refers to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. So it is not meant to be insulting to the pulpit as the two references concern two different campaigns.
Exactly. :-)
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