Fred and the Christian Right

David Domke writes today about the evangelical vote and its warming attitude toward Fred Thompson:

In his shadow campaign Thompson has been doing some heavy outreach to evangelicals. In this week's U.S. News & World Report, Dan Gilgoff reported that Thompson hired Bill Wichterman, who served as conservative outreach director for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and Joseph Cella, president of conservative Catholic group Fidelis, to set up meetings with leading evangelicals.

It's paying off.

In late March, Focus on the Family's James Dobson said he doubted that Thompson was a Christian. But Gilgoff--whose 2007 book The Jesus Machine documents the rising political influence of Dobson--reported that Dobson is now "rumored to be reassessing Thompson." Indeed, a Dobson spokesman laid out the political pathway for Reagan, er Thompson, telling CNN that "Thompson hasn't clearly communicated his religious faith, and many evangelical Christians might find this a barrier to supporting him."

Translation: show us a sign--a public sign--and we'll believe. Expect Thompson, therefore, to deliver a high-profile speech about values and faith in the coming months, perhaps even before he kicks off his campaign (now rumored to be set for just after Labor Day).

Right now I think Fred's the only guy with a serious shot at attracting a significant percentage of the evangelical vote. Evangelicals were briefly interested in Giuliani when he was the only viable candidate around, but I think they'll quickly switch to Thompson. Romney has some evangelical support, but I think it's pretty weak and based strictly on social issues. Should someone like Thompson come along with similar social values and without the baggage of belonging to what many evangelicals consider a cult, Romney's evangelical support will wither.