McCain Leading the GOP on Its Course to Debacle

Bloomberg's Al Hunt says ' Republicans (are) ... petrified about (a) November debacle'.

And with John McCain, weak and listless, as the GOP nominee, Democrats are looking for a big win.

McCain will never capture the hearts of the religious right, no matter how many John Hagees McCain finds under their respective rocks.

Below is an updated, edited piece from last fall, Religious Right to Kill 2008 Republican Nominee (October 2007).

Update II: Novak - McCain's Christian Problem (May 12, 2008)

Update: Evangelicals deserting ahead of 2008 election (October 2007)

Perhaps the key question about the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nominee is: How badly will the Republican nominee under-perform with the religious right in the general election?

Looking at the nominee, the answer appears to be very badly.

Though the religious right voters arguably comprises merely some 15 percent of the electorate in the general election, absent their enthusiastic support, the Republican nominee is dead.

The religious right has found no acceptable candidates in the GOP's first-tier candidates, so Democrats had some fun observing their nomination process while Obama emerged as the Democratic nominee and the GOP winner John McCain took the mantle.

"Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances," said James Dobson last year. Few religious right leaders have forgiven McCain for his wildly unpopular (in Republican circles) McCain/Feingold bill, and his April 9, 2000 speech trashing the religious right (that’s the Robertson/Falwell “agents of intolerance” speech).

The Republicans are going to lose this fall, and they are right to be very afraid.