That’s what Southern Baptist bigwig Richard Land says. I hope he’s right.
Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission says Giuliani and Gingrich’s marital difficulties make them non-starters in competing for the hard-core “Christian” vote, even in a general election against Hillary Clinton.
Interesting, if true, and encouraging in terms of Democratic hopes of taking back the White House. I’d be a little bit surprised, though. In Rudy’s case, his personal issues will tend to reinforce Religious Right concerns about some of his political stances (from which he’s hastily backing away). And maybe Gingrich’s poorly-concealed Social Darwinist streak will hurt him. But my sense is that denouncing sin and sinners is much more important to those folks than not actually sinning.
Of course, if Land is saying what he believes, his opinion is worth a thousand of mine. But he could just be plumping for Huckabee and Brownback.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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