Salt and Light

What a mess! The two most conservative presidential candidates, three if you include Tom Tancredo, are Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter and the only way they’ll be on the White House steps on Inaugural Day, barring a miracle, would be to by invitation only.

The four remaining GOP candidates, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Ron Paul, show just how fractured our party is. Let’s go from back to front:

Ron Paul - horrible on the War on Terror…next

Mike Huckabee - wants to give my tax rebate to building roads and bridges and claims to have the Heritage Foundation on his side. Weeeellllll, not exactly Governor. It seems the Heritage Foundation, while true they are opposed to tax rebates, they favor tax cuts and oppose increased spending. It seems the still preaching from the pulpit former pastor pursuing the presidency candidate either got his facts confused or misspoke. Huckabee has gave some great answers to questions such as evolution, his faith, and last night he gave a good answer to the Reagan endorsement question, Huckabee has only 29 delegates so far. Many a pundit suspect Huckabee is positioning himself for a VP spot; in fact my dream ticket was Thompson/Huckabee. It turned out just to be a dream…anyway, Huckabee had one of his patented lines (he’s clever if nothing else) on Joe Scarborough’s channel (Joe used to be a strong conservative)

So, what about Governor Romney? Most conservative pundits are lining up with Romney because he espouses conservative beliefs. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council says that Romney has painted himself into a conservative corner and would be hard-pressed to change positions. Tony, I have great faith in Romney’s ability to get out of any corner he’s painted himself into; he’s been quite adroit at that all his political career. Nevertheless, voters wanting to vote for a candidate running on conservative issues are leaning towards Romney. However, Romney’s record, as Huckabee eluded to in the video, is not all that conservative. The folks at MassResistance are not real excited about Romney becoming the 44th President.

Now McCain…Senator, you give the appearance as though you are entitled to the presidency. That really bothers me. You conducted yourself very un-presidential last night and you’ve got more liberals and RINOs lining up behind you than I as a conservative would be comfortable with. You’ve been endorsed by Joe Lieberman, the NY Times, Charlie Crist (um, he’s not a conservative), Mel Martinez, Rudy Giuliani, and Arnold Schwarzenneger. We must also remember that McCain seriously considered becoming John Kerry’s running mate in 2004 and reportedly considered becoming an independent in 2001!

I know the Senator from Arizona is basking in the limelight, but his beloved MSM will turn on him the minute the Democratic nomination is secured.

I know some are ready and willing to teach the GOP a lesson, but they didn’t learn in 2006 and this isn’t the congressional elections; the White House is at stake. More on that later…

Here is the link to my latest press release stating my continued support for Fred Thompson as President. Below is my explanation for my position…

Walking in the Light

My blog is titled “Salt and Light” and it comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13-16)

As stated under the title of my blog, I write with the intent of “bringing political and moral clarity into the fog of political correctness.”

Another passage of Scripture that speaks of walking in the light comes from the Apostle John’s first letter:

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1: 5-7)

I’ve lost count of the number of messages I’ve received since Fred Thompson withdrew his name for candidacy for President. Many people wonder what I will do since I had publicly endorsed Thompson for President.

Will you now support Mike Huckabee as the only real evangelical in the race?

Please support Alan Keyes now; he’s the only real choice left for evangelicals.

That is just an example of some of the messages; I’ve changed them up a bit so that no one can actually identify their own. I want to thank all of you for your input but I had to step away from all of it and seek guidance from God’s word and the counsel of my pastor.

Now the decision I arrived at was the one that came to mind almost immediately. I’ve previously outlined my dilemma with supporting Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, or Romney. Those concerns did not lessen any over time; my seeking God’s face did not minimize but illuminated what is at stake.

I’ve been trying, as most everyone else, to determine what the outcome on the election will be if I vote for a particular candidate, and therein lies the problem. It’s a question of focus. I’m trying to sight a ship out on the horizon that is 20 miles out to sea and since you can only see 3 miles to the horizon at sea level; it’s a hopeless endeavor. It’s like trying to predict the future.

A story my pastor loves to share goes something like this:

A poor village man once had a beautiful white steed. All the villagers came to him and told him that he was too poor to own such a fine horse and he should sell the horse and keep the money. The man, said “I dunno, maybe it’s not such a good idea to sell the horse, who knows?”

Not long after that, the King passes an edict that says all young men must join the King’s army and they come to the village and take away all the able-bodied young men to join the army. The villagers marvel and say, “You were right!!! It is a great thing that your son’s legs were broken, now he doesn’t have to go off to war!!!!!” The father again shrugs and says, “I dunno, maybe it isn’t a great thing that my son did not go off to war. Who knows?” And so continues the story…

The moral of the story is that we do not know how God will work out the circumstances of our lives. We can rarely predict with any certainty how our decisions will affect our lives later. Sometimes we think we’re doing the right thing and it turns out completely wrong.

What I do know is that I serve a sovereign God and regardless of who is inaugurated on January 20, 2009, God will still be in control. Now many of you may not share my faith in the God of the Bible; that’s okay. I pray you begin reading the Bible to gain a better understanding, but if not that, may I encourage you to read my book Understanding Evangelicals: A Guide to Jesusland where I help the reader grasp what motivates folks like me.

I awoke last Thursday morning early to use the bathroom and as I was returning to bed to get a couple more hours of sleep, the Holy Spirit instructed me to read Psalm 119 when I got up in the morning. So I get up, shower, shave, get ready for work, grab a cup of coffee and began reading Psalm 119. This is the longest psalm in the Old Testament, 176 verses total, and it returned me to three simple truths:

1. God’s word is good; it instructs me and helps me to understand life better.
2. God wants us to be faithful to His word.
3. God wants us to be obedient to His word.

I don’t have all the answers about this election or even all the candidates for that matter. I know that the four leading candidates that remain in the Republican primary either do not hold to the same conservative values I do and/or have not lived by them in their recent pasts.

I also believe that many Republicans have an unhealthy obsession with Hillary Clinton that is blinding some of our judgment, in my humble opinion. IF, IF Hillary was to win, I do not believe that she would bring many congressional seats with her. Also, I think our base would be mobilized like in 1994 and the Democrats would take another beating in 2010.

In the meanwhile, and I know this is a gamble, the Republicans in office will see us coming, the thundering herd of real conservatives. If they want to survive 2010, they’ll make the current gridlock look like an open sieve and while the Democrats do their normal screaming, they’ll not pass any of their socialist agenda (kinda like right now).

So the worst case scenario for many of us, another Clinton in the White House, would surely wake this country up and if not, then we as a movement are a lost cause. I don’t for a minute believe that…we are a conservative people but as my good friend Dino always says, political correctness makes cowards of too many of us, especially our elected officials. We need to demand character and courage from our elected officials.

I’m more worried about Barack Obama than Hillary. I believe Hillary will have short coattails and only serve one term; “conservative” congressional Democrats are already worried about her nomination.

Obama, on the other hand, is mesmerizing. He could tell the world in his finest Martin Luther King voice and cadence that he’s going to raise taxes, supports partial birth abortion, wants to bring the troops home now, wants to talk to our enemies, belong to a black separatist church of whose pastor Obama says he loves, etc and still woo the crowds, including evangelicals Christians who traditionally vote GOP. Oh wait, he’s already done that.

Some voters look at Obama’s inexperience as a positive alternative to the Washington Insiders. Plus, Obama is going to have HUGE coattails and if he starts campaigning in our at-risk GOP seats, look out. We’ll be saying President Obama until 2016. Obama will also take many evangelicals with him.

I equate the Republican Party to an old run down house. You cannot come in as though it has water damage from a hurricane or flood and rip out the carpet and drywall and replace it with new materials. Our party is beyond that; the building is condemned and it needs to be leveled to the foundation, which is our core conservative values.

Again, these are only at best limited educated guesses and I will not lose a night’s sleep over it.

None of us can say what our world will be like in 10 months from now when we go to the polls to elect a president. For that matter, we cannot predict what the world will look like when we arrive at the Republican National Convention in September. Many pundits were claiming the nominations would be locked up after Super Tuesday and now the Associated Press is saying that Super Tuesday won’t decide nominations.

I’ve been told by many that I’m dreaming if I believe the GOP convention will be brokered, but do they know that for sure? Can we evangelicals say that God cannot work in that way? Please understand that I am not speculating nor predicting; I would not presume to speak for God. I’m merely reminding the flock that we still serve a mighty God.

So I’m going to walk in the light I have now and know that God will provide more light later. That light is showing me to go with what I had planned all along. I will vote for Fred Thompson in Florida’s primary. He will be on many ballots in many states because they’ve already been printed. If he is not on the ballot and your state allows for write in candidates, consider that option.

Some may say (in fact some already have) that I am wasting my vote. First of all, who are you to tell me how to vote in a primary? That’s not being defensive or antagonistic, I really want to know. Under what authority or presumption do you question me so? Is this not America? Am I not allowed to vote for the candidate of my choice according to the rules of my state party?

This evangelical is still supporting Fred Thompson for President. I will not allow money or the media to dictate to me how to vote in the primary. We are to vote for the best candidate, not the most electable or charismatic or with the best campaign staff. I want the best conservative candidate, the one who most closely aligns with my values. The rest are a distant second. I cannot imagine voting for any of them. Come November 4th that may all change…

But for now, I’m still a Fredhead!

I just took an interesting IQ test (stop laughing!)

This IQ tests your knowledge and as it says on the website, “If you think you know Roe, we think you’ll be surprised!” Oh yeah, and no cheating! No using any resources to help answer the questions; just your brain.

I got 7 out of 12 right for a 58.3%; an F!!! First F I’ve ever got. With the 35th Anniversary of Roe v Wade you’re going to hear a lot about what is and isn’t fact. Check out the website and see how you do!

Roe IQ

My dear brother in Christ Gregg Jackson just sent me an article written by Georgia Representative John Linder. Rep. Linder makes some compelling arguments in “Huckabee Presents the Best Choice for Reagan Supporters.”

I’ll be interested to hear your comments…please make them substantive.

So now that America has passed up a Great American in Fred Thompson (and I don’t use that term loosely), what am I going to do now? I’ve already received numerous emails wondering who I’m supporting.

The simple answer is I don’t know. Now I have always been a big fan of Alan Keyes and although I believe in voting for the best candidate, a candidate should have at least an outside shot at winning the nomination. Unfortunately, while Ambassador Keyes is one of the godliest leaders America has ever had, his message has never caught fire.

So who do I know for sure I’m not voting for? If you’ve been following this blog for anytime you know the level of angst I have for Mitt Romney. I do not trust this man; I think he would say and do anything to get elected and his past record proves it. Also, the Governor is still not leveling with the American people and what is worse is that many, many conservative leaders in and out of the media are not addressing this issue.

I want all of you to go to the website Republicans for Family Values and please, please be sure to read everything, including and especially the links provided. I ask you to look at the long list of names who signed this letter. I also encourage you to read the very comprehensive Mitt Romney Report.

Are we willing as a nation to sell our soul, are we willing as a conservative movement, and are we who call ourselves evangelicals willing to sell our soul to prevent Hillary from becoming President? Quite frankly, I think any GOP candidate can beat Hillary because her record is so dismal and she is so divisive. I cannot imagine my conscience allowing me to vote for Mitt Romney and you can get as mad at me as you want, but I have to look the Lord in the face in the end.

For me to overlook everything about Romney’s record means I just have to take his word.

Rudy Giuliani is being touted as a great leader and tough on defense. Okay, he did a good job cleaning up New York City, I’ll give him that and he was a calming presence during the 9/11 attacks. However, he is not a man of character. A man of character doesn’t tell us his family issues are a private matter and yet openly has an adulterous affair, divorces the mother of his children, and then marries his mistress, all under public scrutiny. He now admits to making mistakes in his personal life…um, yeah! It has also been reported that he billed the city for his security while visiting his mistress.

As for his handling of 9/11, much controversy swirls around Giuliani’s handling of the city’s defenses after the first World Trade Center bombing. A New York City police officer will be appearing on Greg Allen’s The Right Balance tomorrow at 10:33 am Eastern time to discuss the topic.

First and foremost the problem I have with Rudy is his pro-choice stance, even though he personally opposes abortion. That is a double-minded man and one who does not stand on principle. He has promised to appoint only strict originalist judges in the mold of Scalia, Roberts, Alito, and Thomas, but what does his past appointments tell us? Of the 75 judges Rudy appointed in New York, Democrats outnumbered Republicans 8 to 1; his judges leaned left! So I guess I’m just supposed to take his word too!

John McCain is a war hero and from all accounts a good man, except for the F-Bombs he likes to unleash when provoked, at fellow senators no less…very presidential.

So what brought on such an outburst? The now infamous Kennedy-McCain immigration bill. Before we rehash this; note to Republicans…anytime you find yourself agreeing with Ted Kennedy you are on the wrong side! Name one piece of legislation that Kennedy has supported that a conservative could support.

Anyway John McCain has said he has heard America loud and clear on immigration and that we can trust him to do the right thing. How do we do that Senator? You have fought Republicans every step of the way for the last eight years. You stopped the nuclear option on judicial nominees, effectively castrating then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. You supported McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform stripping every day Americans of their 1st Amendment rights, meaning the public no longer has a voice in the electoral process 60 days from an election. You have McCain-Lieberman now with this little quote of the Senator’s:

“Our nation has both an obligation and self-interest in facing head-on the serious environmental, economic and national security threat posed by global warming.”

Yeah, that’ll play well inside the halls of conservatism.

Last but not least we have our sax, I mean bass guitar-playing Governor from Arkansas, Mike Huckabee.

Okay, where do I begin?

Net increases in taxes and I’ve heard his explanations but they do not wash sir. As I wrote in my NMJ article, “An Evangelical’s Huckabee Hesitancy”,

“My concern with Governor Huckabee is that he will rely too much on government to fix problems facing Americans, when it should be Americans fixing their own problems with a little help from their friends and not Uncle Sam.”

Governor Huckabee touts himself as a conservative but he makes me think he’s more of a populist. Every time I’m feeling better about Governor Huckabee, he goes and does something to make me hestitate again. I mean, when you read The Huckabee Plan at The Evangelical Outpost, it sure briefs well, but then again we are back to the trust thing. The Club for Growth, which the Governor disparagingly calls the Club for Greed, released its white paper of Governor Huckabee’s economic record and his past doesn’t look like what he promises for the future.

So there is my dilemma and I’m already getting lots of advice. I’m being told to do the inevitable and support Romney because if I support Huckabee I’ll just have to come back here again and find someone else to back. Well, unlike Rush, I’m fine with backing the candidate I’m most comfortable with until he withdraws, if need be. This is the primary season and that’s what we’re supposed to do; vote our consciences, not convenience.

I will be praying a lot in the next few days and returning to Scripture to seek the Lord’s guidance. I’m already comforted in knowing that no matter what we do here in America, God is still in control. My greatest fear of a president was that he or she might do something stupid and get my son killed; well that has happened (no fault of the President) and through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ my family is surviving that. Having said that, I do not want my son’s death to be in vain and we walk away from this global war of Islamo-fascism (terror is a tactic; not an enemy).

I will seek my pastor’s counsel and men I trust and I will publish my decision by the weekend.

May God bless us all and may He continue to bless our great country.

If you’re not already a Fredhead, you can join now and contribute at least $10 or even $5 to the campaign. If we come out in great numbers it will help Fred’s decision to remain. Just use the link below and thank you so much and please pass the word.

Even though the “experts” say Fred’s done, I’m using the Yogi Berra principle:

“It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

I’ve just issued a press release about my continued support of Fred Thompson.

Now is not the time to quit!

Here is an email conversation that my dear friend Dino and I had today. It was in response to a visit to Fort Walton Beach by Rudy Giuliani; Dino was sharing how nice an event it was and this is my response followed by his:

He’s still not getting my vote. Dino, the conservative movement is dying right before our eyes. We have Ann Coulter shilling for the biggest phony in America, Mitt Romney. We have conservatives (not you) swooning over a man who although he did a good job overall running NYC, he is a morally bankrupt man in the form of Rudy Giuliani. We have evangelicals running to the Huckabee trough who is nothing more than a populist at best and a liberal at worst.

I hope I’m wrong; I hope if Huckabee wins the nomination he turns out to be the man many evangelicals and conservatives believe he is. Unfortunately, all my research, prayer, and instincts, along with my pastor who has been an insider to the Southern Baptist Convention for 25 years, believe he’s just another Jimmy Carter. Dave

Davo,

Outside of Thompson, I DO NOT like any of the others. There is NO choice this election. This is sad and as you said, the Conservative movement is dying. I have been saying that now for 8 years. They call themselves conservatives for self advancement but they are not. I personally feel the reason for the movement dying is the fact no one has the stones to stand up and tell it like it is - translated? PC. Dino

I was thankful to hear my good friend Mark Levin tell his South Carolina listeners to vote for Fred Thompson and today both David Limbaugh and Jed Babbin wrote columns explaining that Fred Thompson was the best candidate for the Republican Party.

If you know that Fred Thompson is the most conservative candidate yet your struggling with voting for him because you fear he’s not electable, or he lacks charisma, or he’s not a great speaker, I want you to do something for me. Please walk over to a wall, put your hand to the back of your head, and ram it into the wall. Okay, I don’t really want you to do that. But I want you to think about those reasons and I ask you to go back to my email above and read it again.

The presidential primary process is about nominating the best candidate and trusting that conservatism wins the day everyday!

Well we have less than 48 hours to pull out a miracle victory for Fred Thompson in South Carolina. My endorsement of Senator Thompson has got some legs on it and its being read all over the blogosphere, including in South Carolina.

Yesterday I was interviewed on a blog site from a student attending the Dallas Theological Seminary. Jeff Wright from the Conservative Reformed Mafia did a nice job and I appreciate him giving me the time to expound on my choosing Fred Thompson. The website may at first appear a little scary, but click on the picture from the movie Tombstone and it will explain itself.

Lastly, I put together a video endorsement for Fred Thompson and put it out on YouTube. My prayer is that it grows wings overnight and spreads all over the Palmetto State. Have a look!

If anyone doubts that the ACLU has a leftist, anarchist agenda to unravel the very fabric of our union, then take a gander at this article on Yahoo News!

ACLU: Sex in Restroom Stalls Is Private

Let’s see if we can understand this pretzel logic, shall we?

Because “a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling 38 years ago that found that people who have sex in closed stalls in public restrooms ‘have a reasonable expectation of privacy”, the ACLU writes that this “means the state cannot prove Craig was inviting an undercover officer to have sex in public.”

My only other question is will Senator Craig distances himself from this support?

If I had not just met my new conservative Christian friend Gary Gross from Minnesota I would say there was no hope for that state.

Once again a definition from Dictionary.com is in order:

Revulsion (n): a strong feeling of repugnance, distaste, or dislike.

It wasn’t more than an hour after I enjoyed an amazing Angus beef porterhouse steak grilled to perfection on my back patio, that I turn on the TV in my bedroom to watch the FoxNews coverage of the Michigan primary just in time to catch part of Mitt Romney’s victory speech.

What I heard almost made me lose that fine dinner; Mitt Romney talking about his inspirations and he invoked two names that inspired him: Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush. I’m sure that Governor Romney is completely sincere and did not have this particular video in mind that I and many, many more bloggers have been playing:

Yeah, I’m sure he’s always thought Reagan was great. Well maybe not really. You see the older Romney gets, the smarter Ronald Reagan gets (yuk, yuk, yuk). Um, or could it be Governor, the more you get hammered for being a phony conservative the more you always were a big fan of Reagan/Bush? Well, here you watch:

Hey stop laughing, he’s serious…no he’s really serious. He means it and anything else he needs to say to pander to those scared to death of Hillary Clinton. Well, here’s a news flash…if Mitt Romney does win the nomination and Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, then the White House staff will be saying Madame President for the first time ever.

(Oh man, that means Madame President and Madame Speaker…hmm, maybe Australia isn’t such a bad idea…)

Would someone please help me out? What is it about Romney’s phoniness that you cannot see? Is there some evil pall over our country that our eyes are so deceived that we cannot see who this man really is? I think Joan Vennochi puts it best in her August 9, 2007 Boston Globe column titled “Romney’s honesty problem.” Ms Vennochi writes:

Every time Romney tries to explain his evolution from supporter to opponent of abortion rights, his honesty comes into question. That’s because his explanations over the years don’t add up.

Talk about the understatement of the campaign!

Nevertheless, as an official Fredhead, I’m actually glad that Romney won Michigan because that takes the wind out of the McCain and Huckabee sails and makes South Carolina (the first true GOP primary) that much more significant. Fred Thompson is gaining support everyday as is evidenced in this latest Rasmussen Reports article.

The fun is just beginning!

Well my endorsement of Fred Thompson is being carried by as many as 12 main websites in the blogosphere. I have received some great questions from fellow Christians and I’ve received some hate mail from “Christians.”

Once again, if you’ve not already read it, Frank Salvato of the New Media Journal has published my article explaining why I’m not a Huckabee fan. Please read “An Evangelical’s Huckabee Hesitancy” and thanks in advance for passing the word!

Well, I’m knee deep in the hoopla!

I had a wonderful telephone conversation today with Gary Gross, a fellow blogger from Let Freedom Ring…please check out his blog and I’ve added him to my blog roll.

Gary linked to my press release from this morning where I’ve officially endorsed Fred Thompson.

Thanks for the compliment Gary but I’d hardly describe myself as “a major Christian leader.” More accurately I’m just like all in the blogosphere trying to make a difference in this very important election cycle.

I’ve caught some flak for this endorsement already, some of it for not endorsing Governor Huckabee. I have an article titled “My Huckabee Hesitation” coming out on the New Media Journal tomorrow morning. Please read it and pass it along also!

Things are moving real fast so keep a lookout here. I’m asking for your prayers and although I can’t go into specifics, please pray that God’s will is done in the ongoing negotiations I’m involved with currently.

God bless!

I just had to share this with you and a big thanks to Debbie Suarez for sending this to me. Apparently this legend has been around for a long while but I had never heard of it. Regardless its origin or date, it blessed my heart.

Deck of Cards

It was quiet that day, the guns and the mortars, and land mines for some reason hadn’t been heard.

The young soldier knew it was Sunday, the holiest day of the week. As he was sitting there, he got out an old deck of cards and laid them out across his bunk.

Just then an army sergeant came in and said, “Why aren’t you with the rest of the platoon?”

The soldier replied, “I thought I would stay behind and spend some time with the Lord”

The sergeant said, “Looks to me like you’re going to play cards.”

The soldier said, “No, sir. You see, since we are not allowed to have Bibles or other spiritual books in this country, I’ve decided to talk to the Lord by studying this deck of cards.”

The sergeant asked in disbelief, “How will you do that?”

“You see the Ace, Sergeant? It reminds me that there is only one God.

The Two represents the two parts of the Bible, Old and New Testaments

The Three represents the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Four stands for the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Five is for the five virgins there were ten but only five of them were glorified.

The Six is for the six days it took God to create the Heavens and Earth.

The Seven is for the day God rested after making His Creation.

The Eight is for the family of Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives — the eight people God spared from the flood that destroyed the Earth.

The Nine is for the lepers that Jesus cleansed of leprosy.. He cleansed ten, but nine never thanked Him.

The Ten represents the Ten Commandments that God handed down to Moses on tablets made of stone.

The Jack is a reminder of Satan, one of God’s first angels, but he got kicked out of heaven for his sly and wicked ways and is now the joker of eternal hell.

The Queen stands for the Virgin Mary.

The King stands for Jesus, for he is the King of all kings.

When I count the dots on all the cards, I come up with 365 total, one for every day of the year.

There are a total of 52 cards in a deck; each is a week - 52 weeks in a year.

The four suits represent the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Each suit has thirteen cards — there are exactly thirteen weeks in a quarter .

So when I want to talk to God and thank Him, I just pull out this old deck of cards and they remind me of all that I have to be thankful for.”

The sergeant just stood there. After a minute, with tears in his eyes and pain in his heart, he said, “Soldier, can I borrow that deck of cards?”

Please let this be a reminder and take time to pray for all of our soldiers who are being sent away, putting their lives on the line fighting.

Pray for the Military.

Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands.

Protect them.

Bless them and their families.

I ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Amen.

Here is the interview on The Christian Post news website that I gave to reporter Michelle Vu. Michelle wrote an article last week reporting on my news release after the Iowa Caucus declaring “Jesusland Alive and Well in Iowa.”

I was unaware of this website until last week and it is right up there with World Magazine for excellent news reporting through a biblical lens. Please pass the word!

Sorry, I just love those Yankee accents. I’m home with a gouty ankle so I thought I would pontificate for a moment.

Surprise, surprise, surprise! The pollsters were totally wrong, and for a very good reason.

The turnout models that pollsters are using are not considering the large voter turnout that we’ve seen in both Iowa and New Hampshire. It’s great for America when we can get 70-75% of eligible voters out there voting, particularly if they are informed. Also, nearly 1 out of 5 voters are making their decision when they go into the voting booth. This tells me one of two things is happening if not both; folks are taking this vote very seriously and/or they’re having a hard time making up their mind.

Nevertheless, congratulations to Hillary Clinton for an amazing comeback. Let it be known that unlike most Conservatives, I am rooting for Hillary to win the Democratic nomination because I think she’s easy to beat in the general election. Not so with Barack Obama. If you’ve not seen his speeches after Iowa and last night in New Hampshire, this guy is good and comes off as authentic. I for one believe he is authentic, an authentic socialist that is. I wrote about Obama’s genuineness in a New Media Journal article titled, “Losing My Religion.”

Are voters going to look beyond the charisma, eloquence, youth, and passion and look at Obama’s stances? Let’s hope so! My dear friend Greg Allen of The Right Balance sent me this article about the GOP which is good news to me. It tells me they learned their lesson from 2006 and are not counting on a turnout message to win the day.

The Chairman of TheVanguard.org’s Rod Martin wrote an excellent article on this subject a couple of days after the 2006 election and it rings truer today than when he wrote it.

As for the GOP, I’m not as sold on this being a two-way race between Romney and McCain. I think Huckabee is a very viable candidate, especially with RINO voters and “moderate evangelicals” (an oxymoron), and if you look at the national polls (I know, but it’s all I got), it is still a five-way race. Romney and Thompson are beginning to slip out of contention, which delights me with the former and depresses me with the latter!

Rod talked about cleaning house and that is what the sponsor of this blog is all about. If you’re not already a member of TheVanguard.org, please join up today. We are the real antidote to MoveON.org and Rod and his lovely wife and co-chairman Sherri Martin have been working tirelessly for the past year to get on board some big hitters in the conservative movement.

Join before it becomes the popular thing to do!

My latest press release was picked up by reporter Michelle Vu of the Christian Post.

Please read, “Author: 7 Million Non-Voting Evangelicals the Big Prize”

My good friend, brother-in-Christ, and fellow political commentator Gregg Jackson co-hosts the show Pundit Review Radio and will be on tonight on WKRO’s AM 680.

Gregg has informed me they will be saluting Eddie in a segment they call, “Someone You Should Know.” If you miss the show, Gregg promises it will be available via podcast and I’ll be sure to post it here. The show runs from 7 - 10 pm EST.

I recall for the last couple of years I’ve been saying that Hillary Clinton is not a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination because she is not very likeable and she’s never really faced the fire. Well it seems as though both of this was on display in New Hampshire tonight.

Now I did not watch the debate, I was too busy watching the marvelous victory of the Jacksonville Jaguars over the Pittsburgh Steelers, but thanks to Matt Drudge and YouTube we can catch up on all the fun.

Here we have Hillary becoming a little hot under the collar:

And next we have independent voters from New Hampshire commenting on Hillary:

As for Hillary providing health care for guardsmen and reservists that did not have health care, weeeellllll….that’s not exactly true. Our good friends at FactCheck.org have a different story:

Clinton says, “You would think that … National Guard and Reserve … would have had health insurance. But they didn’t.”

It is certainly true that Clinton was among those pushing to expand and improve federal coverage for reservists while they’re not on active duty. But it’s just wrong to say the National Guard and Reserve didn’t have health insurance, because the large majority did.

Clinton would have been correct to say “some didn’t” have health insurance. She even would be justified in saying that, before her efforts, guardsmen and reservists “didn’t have adequate health insurance.” That’s an opinion with which many would agree. But by falsely claiming that “they didn’t” have health insurance, she gives herself more credit than the facts support.

So once again we have a Clinton stretching the truth or maybe we have a new definition of “have.”

Is anyone running for president in 2008 a real Reagan conservative? How do we tell? Some voters, especially evangelicals, are ready to fold up their tents and go home! Other voters figure since there’s no more Reagan there’s no more real conservative candidate, so why vote? So what do we do in this year of limited options? First, let’s define Reagan Conservatism.

Ronald Reagan’s conservatism was shaped by Barry Goldwater’s The Conscience of a Conservative. In When Character Was King (a must read for all wannabe Reaganites), Peggy Noonan writes: …it spoke to him (Goldwater’s book). It reflected his belief that the proper stance of a patriot right now was against a bigger government and for a smaller one. Just about the only part of the government he wanted to see grow was the armed forces, because he felt America must have an unsurpassed and unsurpassable military arsenal in order to protect freedom in the world. (Bold emphasis added)

For those of you self-described Reagan conservatives, who believe we can separate ourselves into three separate groups, please remember that conservatism is a three-legged stool, not three separate compartments. An engine can run on less than one cylinder albeit not very smoothly. However, a stool that is missing one or more of its legs is useless. So it is with conservatism.

Reagan described this clearly on March 20, 1981 in Washington DC to the Conservative Political Action Conference:

Because ours is a consistent philosophy of government, we can be very clear: We do not have a separate social agenda, a separate economic agenda, and a separate foreign agenda. We have one agenda. Just as surely as we seek to put our financial house in order and rebuild our nation’s defenses, so too we seek to protect the unborn, to end the manipulation of schoolchildren by utopian planners, and permit acknowledgement of a Supreme Being in our classrooms just as we allow such acknowledgments in other public institutions.

All the Republican presidential candidates say they are Reagan conservatives. Are they really…does each of them hold to all three pillars of Reagan Conservatism?

Rudy Giuliani – this shouldn’t take too long. Rudy Giuliani believes in a woman’s right to choose; he ran as a pro-choice candidate against Hillary Clinton. I’ve heard many of my fellow conservatives say that Rudy is strong on national defense and a nation needs to survive in order to fight the abortion issue. To this I say a nation does not deserve to exist if it will not protect the unborn. I think a little revisit of our Declaration of Independence is in order:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

Life belongs to the born and unborn and it is the responsibility of government to protect those rights; our government has not only failed to protect these rights since 1973, but has protected the rights of those who have butchered 50 million Americans.

This is what Reagan said about abortion in his pro-life tract:

Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide. My Administration is dedicated to the preservation of America as a free land, and there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.

If you are pro-choice you are not a Reagan Conservative; you fail the social conservative test. Sorry Rudy.

Mitt Romney – why are we even having this discussion? Romney’s positions have flipped-flopped so much if he were running as a Democrat we Republicans would be rooting for him to win he’d be so easy to beat! Remember what John Kerry said that got labeled flip-flopper?

What about Mitt Romney? Here are some…um…disparities…you decide if he’s trustworthy.

Pro gun control vs. supporting the NRA

Pro abortion vs. pro life

Not a Reagan Conservative vs. Is a Reagan Conservative

Clinton’s definition of “is” vs. Romney’s definition of “saw”

Romney’s stance on gays in the military…huh?

Would Mitt Romney fight for the rights of the unborn? In a 2005 Boston Globe editorial Romney wrote: Because Massachusetts is decidedly pro-choice, I have respected the state’s democratically held view. I have not attempted to impose my own views on the pro-choice majority.

This is a decidedly different approach from Ronald Reagan’s: Over the first two years of my Administration I have closely followed and assisted efforts in Congress to reverse the tide of abortion — efforts of Congressmen, Senators and citizens responding to an urgent moral crisis. Regrettably, I have also seen the massive efforts of those who, under the banner of “freedom of choice,” have so far blocked every effort to reverse nationwide abortion-on-demand.

Leadership demands that you step into the “views of the pro-choice majority” and demand that this heinous practice be stopped. Reagan was unsuccessful yet he did not let that discourage him: Despite the formidable obstacles before us, we must not lose heart. This is not the first time our country has been divided by a Supreme Court decision that denied the value of certain human lives. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 was not overturned in a day, or a year, or even a decade. At first, only a minority of Americans recognized and deplored the moral crisis brought about by denying the full humanity of our black brothers and sisters; but that minority persisted in their vision and finally prevailed. They did it by appealing to the hearts and minds of their countrymen, to the truth of human dignity under God. From their example, we know that respect for the sacred value of human life is too deeply engrained in the hearts of our people to remain forever suppressed. But the great majority of the American people have not yet made their voices heard, and we cannot expect them to — any more than the public voice arose against slavery — until the issue is clearly framed and presented.

Why didn’t Governor Romney spend his time as governor educating Massachusetts on the evils of abortion? More from his editorial: Except on matters of the starkest clarity like the issue of banning partial-birth abortions, there is not now a decisive national consensus on abortion. Some parts of the country have prolife majorities, others have pro-choice majorities. People of good faith on both sides of the issue should be able to make and advance their case in democratic forums — with civility, mutual respect, and confidence that democratic majorities will prevail. We will never have peace on the abortion issue, much less a consensus of conscience, until democracy is allowed to work its way.

To Governor Romney abortion is an issue; for Ronald Reagan is was more than an issue, it was about two lives: What, then, is the real issue? I have often said that when we talk about abortion, we are talking about two lives — the life of the mother and the life of the unborn child. Why else do we call a pregnant woman a mother? I have also said that anyone who doesn’t feel sure whether we are talking about a second human life should clearly give life the benefit of the doubt. If you don’t know whether a body is alive or dead, you would never bury it. I think this consideration itself should be enough for all of us to insist on protecting the unborn.

I want a president who will “impose (his) own views on the pro-choice majority.” I want a president who will “insist on protecting the unborn.”

It is clear, at least to me, that Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are missing the most important leg of conservatism; the social agenda.

Next installment we’ll look at the rest of the presidential candidates.