Steve Scheffler and the Iowa Christian Alliance hosted the annual Friends of the Family Awards Banquet earlier tonight. The Real Sporer was able to attend for an hour or so, and then the back injury sent me back to the homelands to prop up the feet.
ICA had a very large turnout, about 75% of the Seven Flags total capacity, and the left over space was mostly consumed by display tables and the large banquet lines, so the turnout for the facility couldn’t have been much larger. Almost every major Republican figure in Iowa was present. Kayne Robinson returned as Emcee. The crowd seemed very upbeat. Again, the signs of Republican malaise were noticeably absent tonight.
One of the greatest canards in American politics is the presentation of the Christian social conservative as some kind of radical. It seems that the political agenda ICA pursues is the preservation of existing social norms, not a dramatic change. For example, opposition to homosexual marriage rights isn’t comparable to the notions of radicalized Islam. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brilliantly exclaimed the distinctions just a few days past. Rather, such opposition is an expression of a widely held mainstream belief that is being eroded by the intimidation of thought police of the PC left. The crowd in attendance tonight was the antithesis of radical; they’re normal and tired of being kicked around by the left.
Duncan Hunter had to miss the event because of a serious health problem in his family. Fred Thompson was in the crowd, very cleverly sitting in the back, creating the greatest of exposure. Fred looked much more comfortable than during his first trip to Des Moines. The crowd, comprising literally hundreds of political veterans seemed nonetheless very excited by and interested in Fred.
Fred’s local organization is gaining size and their appeared to be the largest openly Thompson turnout that Des Moines, and I’m guessing anywhere else in Iowa, has yet seen. Team Mitt was out in major force so this event gave both sides an opportunity to judge the competition. Mitt still appears to have the strongest Iowa operation but Fred also appears to be gaining rapidly. Fred was late to the dance but already has tremendous name ID and is displaying the ability to gain traction fairly fast.
Almost all of the Huckabee Iowa forces were on display tonight, as well. The Huckabee campaign remains smaller than the other “top tier” candidates but compensates with extremely high likeability, both the candidate and the campaign. It was apparent that Huck is very popular with the ICA audience tonight. Almost everyone in attendance tonight is going to be a speaking participant at their local caucus so Huck’s sustained popularity with the crowd is significant, as was the anticipation for Thompson.
Congratulations to the ICA Board, and their chairman Steve Scheffler for another great event. As always, it was good to see so many friends tonight, too many to mention. Beats sitting in chair with one’s feet elevated, that’s for sure.
ICA had a very large turnout, about 75% of the Seven Flags total capacity, and the left over space was mostly consumed by display tables and the large banquet lines, so the turnout for the facility couldn’t have been much larger. Almost every major Republican figure in Iowa was present. Kayne Robinson returned as Emcee. The crowd seemed very upbeat. Again, the signs of Republican malaise were noticeably absent tonight.
One of the greatest canards in American politics is the presentation of the Christian social conservative as some kind of radical. It seems that the political agenda ICA pursues is the preservation of existing social norms, not a dramatic change. For example, opposition to homosexual marriage rights isn’t comparable to the notions of radicalized Islam. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brilliantly exclaimed the distinctions just a few days past. Rather, such opposition is an expression of a widely held mainstream belief that is being eroded by the intimidation of thought police of the PC left. The crowd in attendance tonight was the antithesis of radical; they’re normal and tired of being kicked around by the left.
Duncan Hunter had to miss the event because of a serious health problem in his family. Fred Thompson was in the crowd, very cleverly sitting in the back, creating the greatest of exposure. Fred looked much more comfortable than during his first trip to Des Moines. The crowd, comprising literally hundreds of political veterans seemed nonetheless very excited by and interested in Fred.
Fred’s local organization is gaining size and their appeared to be the largest openly Thompson turnout that Des Moines, and I’m guessing anywhere else in Iowa, has yet seen. Team Mitt was out in major force so this event gave both sides an opportunity to judge the competition. Mitt still appears to have the strongest Iowa operation but Fred also appears to be gaining rapidly. Fred was late to the dance but already has tremendous name ID and is displaying the ability to gain traction fairly fast.
Almost all of the Huckabee Iowa forces were on display tonight, as well. The Huckabee campaign remains smaller than the other “top tier” candidates but compensates with extremely high likeability, both the candidate and the campaign. It was apparent that Huck is very popular with the ICA audience tonight. Almost everyone in attendance tonight is going to be a speaking participant at their local caucus so Huck’s sustained popularity with the crowd is significant, as was the anticipation for Thompson.
Congratulations to the ICA Board, and their chairman Steve Scheffler for another great event. As always, it was good to see so many friends tonight, too many to mention. Beats sitting in chair with one’s feet elevated, that’s for sure.
5 comments:
We could have another "Paul Tsongas" lymphoma situation with Fred Thompson. With an active lymphoma campaigning for the Democratic nomination Tsongas refused to release his medical records claiming he was "cured". Had he won the White House he would have died in his first year of office.
Thompson's public position in the press is his lymphoma is just another chronic disease like diabetes. That's simply medically inaccurate. Lymphomas in older people are usually very serious and often fatal.
He should release his medical records immediately. Too just risky for the party's chances in 2008 not to do that.
The ICA is irrelevant.
With a revised perspective on the moral degeneracy consuming our nation the ICA could be potent political force for change. In fact, the same holds true for the Republican Party.
There's no way to maintain moral standards in the absence of economic conditions which encourage such behavior. A good example is once moral middle class married women turning to prostitution in the aftermath of war to support their families. In that connection I recommend the excellent German movie "The Marriage of Eva Braun".
Globalization, rapacious banking practices, utterly brain dead federal family policy among many other things wrecked stable affordable middle class family life so that a child born today has less than a 25% chance of growing up in an intact family. Children raised in single parent households are more likely to have severe sexual identity, learning and behaviorial problems they frequently pass along to their offspring.
Religious leadership needs to refocus its efforts towards backing economic policies which strengthens the family. Moralizing and finger pointing won't work.
I'm a Republican because we stand for the best that America can be. But beliefs alone are not policy.
My recommendation to the ICA is to put issues like abortion, etc,, on the back burner for the time being to concentrate of practical policies to restore stable family life.
Very likely were we successful abortion rates might plummet to insignificance as when pregnant young couples could afford to marry as was the case when I was young.
For what it's worth I suspect overturning Rowe v Wade wouldn't change anything. Overnight night most states would pass emergency legislation to legalize abortion.
To see just how bad things are today I recommend the new movie "Feast of Love".
Guys like Scheffler and Dobson are the Je$$e Jack$on of the Republican Party.
Fred Thompson Running from Reporters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh3Lhw4xYq0
Post a Comment