Tonight for the first time, Obama and McCain will be on a stage together answering questions asked by Rev. Rick Warren, a famous evangelical minister and leader.
I believe this highlights the importance of the evangelical voting block that Obama is wooing and McCain needs to retain if he is to maintain the thirty year old Republican coalition. The simple fact that there is such a debate is a clear proof of the crucial weight that this group of yet undecided voters now wields.
Many evangelicals, especially among the young are disappointed by the Bush years and are now engaging on issues other than abortion and same-sex unions. They have added global warming, poverty and healthcare on their agenda and may thus consider a wider span of problems.
Around 65% of evangelicals say they support McCain but they are wary of the candidate who once called them "agents of intolerance". They will certainly not mount get out the vote operations as they did in 2000 and 2004 when they were galvanised by George W. Bush.
The big story these last four days has been a controversial book on Obama by right-wing activist Jerome Corsi who led and encouraged the "Swiftboat" campaign against John Kerry. His avowed aim is to help defeat the Senator from Illinois as he did the 2004 Democratic candidate. The book and the false claims and exagerations it contains have been constantly discussed on most cable news networks.
How would the Obama campaign respond to the book? By not taking it seriously they might put Obama's candidacy at risk of being "swifboated" as liberal journalists now say.
You may want to read the first chapter of Obama Nation; leftist politics and the cult of personality and for a summary of the controversy read this.
The book is at the top of the best-sellers list of the N-Y Times, one of the questions this raises is : who is reading it? Undecided voters or activist opponents of Obama?
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