Palin Helps McCain With Evangelicals, Doesn't Ensure Their Vote

[tekisui]

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gI03rD-9dNAPZQnC2JUifxZX69GA

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The "Palin factor" may have boosted support for Republican presidential contender John McCain among evangelical Christians but he should not bank on the religious right putting him in the White House as it did George W. Bush in 2004, analysts said Tuesday.

White evangelical Christians were key in getting Bush elected to a second term in 2004, but the US political landscape has changed for this year's contest, analysts from the Pew Research think-tank told reporters at a forum in Washington.

For a start, fewer voters, including evangelicals, align themselves with the Republican party.

"Since about 2005 we have seen a sharp decline in the number of people calling themselves Republicans," Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Washington-based Pew Research Center, told reporters.

"The Democratic Party has a bigger advantage among the public than they've had any time in our polling since 1992," he added.

The same slump is apparent, although not as dramatic, among white evangelicals, who voted massively for Bush in 2004.

"Evangelical voters have displayed a great deal of dissatisfaction with the current state of things, including the Republican Party," said John Greene, senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

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[lapfog_1]

1. And, if he does win with her help, he is going to need a lot of

protection from the people that elected him as they are already praying for him to die about an hour after taking the oath of office.

[Booster]

2. Gee, do you think they finally caught on that the Republicans

are blowing major smoke up their butts over abortion? God, they really are slow to catch on.