Myth #1: Those (bigoted) evangelicals all voted for Huckabee
Posted January 4, 2008
The spin from some Huckabee foes: the Arkansas Baptist only won because (bigoted) born-again Christians in Iowa flocked to the polls and voted unanimously for "Brother Huckabee."
"The evangelical base came out, and they all voted for [Huckabee]," Romney adviser Vin Weber, a former U.S. Representative, told Politico.com.
Not exactly, Congressman. Nineteen percent of these evangelicals backed "Bishop Mitt." Multitudes of Iowa evangelicals -- more than 10,000 if I'm doing the math right -- voted for Mitt Romney on Thursday. If Romney survives at all, it will be because these 'agents of intolerance' [to borrow John McCain's 2000 phrase] bailed out the man from Massachusetts.
Yes, evangelicals did their civic duty and attended the caucuses. According to entrance polls, a whopping 60 percent of all GOP caucus-goers were evangelicals.
However, if the polls are correct, A SLIGHT MAJORITY OF EVANGELICAL REPUBLICAN CAUCUS-GOERS VOTED AGAINST MIKE HUCKABEE.
(You wouldn't pick up that nuance from the headline at WashingtonPost.com, which declares: "Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee rides wave of evangelical fervor to victory over Mitt Romney in Iowa's GOP caucuses.")
To win in South Carolina and other key states, the Romney campaign will need to pick off large numbers of evangelical Christians. Iowa proves this is doable. But if Romney's spin-meisters play the 'victim of evangelical intolerance' card, it could backfire not only in Dixie, but in Michigan, much of the Midwest and even the Pacific Northwest.
Rather than complaining about the results, it might be shrewder to portray Romney as a candidate who can successfully appeal to evangelicals and non-evangelicals alike...
UPDATE: Lisa Riley Roche of the Deseret News in Salt Lake has written a great story (from Iowa on deadline) on this topic. To read it, click here.