This may work against McCain in the end, it seems that the pastor lied about McCain being "in isolation", he wans't even there. So it turns out he likely knew the questions in advance, since all his advisors heard them before he even arrived.

Someone above wrote "The real winner is Rick Warren".

Yeah, uh, not so much perhaps when it comes out that he lied. Actually it already has, he just basically admitted it on CNN.

Barack is a real human with a great background and good instincts and tendencies. Who is the alternative? McCain is completely divorced from real American life. He says any silly thing. He is not real anymore.

McCain is one of those WW-II-style guys who take their kids to church, but believe actual thought about faith is a wimpy fault. Obama has some serious thoughts.

Vote for Barack, please.

Well said gfr001, very well said!

Q: "Are you trying to make a generic black candidate im-

plication?" Answer: No

Here is a link to an article that will hopefully put a finer

point on my statement:

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/47605/the_man_

who_might_make_obama_president/

Point taken re Patrick's poll numbers. 51% is a slight

majority, not TOO popular, however it's enough to win...

One of the few things I like about McCain is that he

doesn't seem to wear his faith on his sleeve like Obama

feels he has to. I'm sorry that any candidate has to go

through with religious vetting.

AKA PumaFreak

You say you are a PUMA. That is fine. I was a delegate for Hillary in our county convention.

What you have to ask yourself is of the two possible victors for the Presidency. Which one will defend womens rights and which one won't.

I am firmly convinced mccain is against womens rights.

Just think about it.

One of the few things I like about McCain is that he doesn't seem to wear his faith on his sleeve like Obama feels he has to.

Yeah, I guess all that talk about activist judges and life beginning AT conception was all just fluff and pandering. The fact that he listed all judges that were supportive of Roe v. Wade as judges he doesn't like, that was all just pandering to the silly people in church he doesn't agree with. The emphasis on this being a Christian nation by McCain, more talk.

The McCain of old (2000) is gone, so he's either changed to the RW'er he is today (very possible, we all change) or he's a liar.

p.s. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and Putin don't wear their religion on their sleeve either, that doesn't make me respect them more.

Except for the admonition to "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" Jesus had little to say about how secular governments ought to be managed. I really don't care if the President is a Christian, Moslem, Jew, Buddhist, or Atheist, as long as he or she promotes the kind of popular representative government with guarantees of individual rights that was initiated by the Founders and advanced so nobly by our society until the past few decades. The obeisances of Senators McCain and Obama before the idol of evangelical approval does nothing toward securing thrifty, responsible government with equal protection under the law. Both aforementioned Senators have revealed their underlying corruption by voting for telecom amnesty in the recent FISA Amendments Act. Neither has come out strongly against the Real ID Act, the misnamed Patriot Act, or other legislative infringements of our inherent rights.

I suspect I am expecting too much to have a candidate who is plain spoken, calls the flim-flam apologists for military aggression for what they are, and is honest about the terrible trouble we are in from extravagant government borrowing and spending and a monetary system controlled by a power elite, inaccessible to the popular will.

So whether McCain or Obama "praises Jesus" is their own private business, as far as I am concerned. I just hope that neither of them turns out to be a bought and sold flunky for transnational corporations in their bloodthirsty stop-at-nothing bid for world hegemony.

No one has the guts to say it! Population control: More birth control, more abortions! Just do it!

"FTT: where did I write "stopping gays from getting married is more important than...everything"?"

But that's how it's treated. There is a large swath of this country that only vote based one or two issues. Usually those two.

"Interracial marraige has absolutely nothing to do with same sex marriage."

Oh, but they do. The same excuses about "tradition" were used against it then as they are used now to justify opposition to same sex marriage.

"Amendments to the Constitution have a high hurdle to overcome, so why all the comnplaining?"

Becuase you think it's okay to just treat the constitution like some kind of grocery list you can just add stuff to everytime you don't like something. This is dangerous no matter who is doing it. Conservatives, liberals, republicans, democrats, it doesn't matter. Are we going to go running to it everytime some new fad issue comes along or everytime some politician wants to get re-elected? Because that is how it is being treated now.

As for abortion, I am personally uncomfortable with late term abortion, but I also don't see abortion in general as black and white. This is the problem I have with conservatives, they want to simplify everything and throw the whole concept of nuance out the window. I also don't think building your entire vote around this one issue or gay marraige as being the best way to convince people. I gotta be honest when I say that from the other side it makes you guys look crazy and obsessed.

On a personal note, you have the same name as my grandfather. I'm not sure why that matters but it does seem odd.

Obama, I have no difficulty saying, is a man of actual faith. It surprises us, because the right-wing preachers have made us react negatively to anyone who brings it up.

McCain doesn't wear his faith on his sleeve, methinks, because he's only capable of cynical political gestures, like calling crazy old Falwell an "agent of intolerance" and then a great man of faith when it suited him -- down to getting Hagee's political support -- a man who shouldn't be allowed next to a banquet table or our politics. His abortion politics merely sign on the bottom line: a GOP presidential candidate is 100% against abortion or he doesn't get the nomination.

I hope the evening picks up a few more votes for Obama, but I'm not holding my breath. As for me, discussing your religion in a public forum at all, outside of a church, is intensely creepy.