John McCain’s denunciation of Pat Robertson yesterday could remind you of candidate Bill Clinton’s anathema 8 years ago on Sister Souljah. It’s the same singling out of a sacred cow for symbolic shaming and a signal that this Republican presidential race is not just a personal contest.
It’s an embattled shuffling of the deck of party interests, and godfathers; and it’s going to remake the GOP, much as Bill Clinton redesigned the “New” Democrats.
Conservative Christian preachers sat at the head table of the Republican party that George W. Bush meant to inherit from his father’s friends and Ronald Reagan’s. Going to Bob Jones University to court them may have been one step too far.
John McCain’s revealed another conservative base for what could be a bigger Republican party – unchurched patriots who see the big ministers and their money more as problem than solution.
The holy war for the soul of GOP – in this hour.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
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