OUP Blog February 14, 2008 / David Domke and Kevin Coe
Is Huckabee's Faith Compatible with Democracy
With John McCain looking to wrap up the Republican Party presidential nomination, challenger Mike Huckabee is just looking for a way to remain relevant. Earlier this week, Huckabee tried going on the attack against a familiar target: the press. At a breakfast meeting with reporters from the Christian Science Monitor, Huckabee decried journalists’ focus on his religious background, saying: “There has been an attempt to ghettoize me for a very small part of my biography. The last time I was in the pulpit was 1991.” Huckabee is right, in that the press has focused a great deal on his faith. more

Oregonian Opinion February 1, 2008 / David Domke and Kevin Coe
Obama's Success Tied to His Religion
In winning the Iowa caucuses and the South Carolina primary, Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama carried virtually every demographic group. You name it, Obama won them: Men and women, young and old, wealthy and less well-off, high school educated and college graduates, urbanites and rural dwellers, Democrats and independents, married and unmarried. He did not win the white vote in South Carolina, but still carried a quarter of white men and women -- more than polls had projected, a reversal of what usually happens to black candidates when voting occurs. more

Street Prophets January 31, 2008 / David Domke
McCain's Unfaithfull Faithful
Now that John McCain and Mitt Romney think it's just the two of them, it's useful to look at who voted for McCain in Tuesday's Florida GOP primary, which McCain won with 36% of the vote, followed by Romney with 31%, Rudy at 15% and the Huckster at 14%. The Florida vote was the only Republican primary thus far that was "closed" -- that is, only people who are members of the Florida GOP could vote on the Republican side. Because it was only Republicans, it is seen as a big win for McCain, who has been more popular among the moderate/independent wing of Republicans and has struggled to attract the more staunchly conversative brethren. more

Street Prophets January 24, 2008 / David Domke
Fred Thompson's Folly, Or Not
Fred Thompson may yet be Ronald Reagan, as many of his admirers hoped him to be. But that would be the 1976 version of Reagan -- that is, a man without a political office who failed in his run for the White House. Other than that, Fred and Ron have little in common. Fred sure as heck ain't the "transformative" politician that Ronnie was, a point on which Obama was correct but for which he should have been wiser than to say during a Democratic Party presidential primary (note, the Clinton ad in South Carolina linking Obama to Reagan was was pulled by the Clinton campaign today). more

Street Prophets January 23, 2008 / David Domke
Obama's Hopemongering
RussellKing a few days ago posted a great diary on Barack Obama's speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church (MLK Jr’s church) on Sunday. Obama, aka the "hope monger," has been rightly criticized for his cozying up with ministers and leaders tied to ex-gay ministries. These elements of Obama's campaign have been the most troubling to me, and I have not let him off the hook in my evaluations. But his speech at Ebenezer was a good start toward the kind of sexual inclusivity I want to see from him. I will watch to see if there is more in this domain in coming weeks. more

OpEd News January 16, 2008 / David Domke and Kevin Coe
The Politics of MLK in the Democratic Primary
One of the most important days in the Democratic Party’s presidential contest arrives on Monday. It involves neither a caucus nor a primary, not a kickoff nor concession speech, and no direct confrontations—party leaders hope—between the candidates. Indeed, for many Americans, it’s a holiday. It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and how it goes will tell us much about the racial and religious politics in the Democratic contest. Harnessing Dr. King’s memory has always been a political prize, but it is especially valuable now with the next Democratic primary slated for South Carolina. more

OUP Blog January 16, 2008 / David Domke and Kevin Coe
The Candidates Go With God to South Carolina
From the Motor City in Michigan to Sin City in Nevada, the 2008 presidential campaign is going national. But with all respect to voters in these states, the road to the White House—and for American politics generally—in the next few weeks goes through South Carolina. That’s because the Palmetto state is ground zero in today’s religious politics. Presidential candidates in both parties these days commonly adopt what we call the “God strategy.” In this approach, politicians make their religious faith demonstrably public and wield it as a campaign centerpiece—to organize and explain one’s values, to justify policy plans, and, most importantly, to divide the electorate into allies and enemies. more

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette January 8, 2008 / David Domke and Kevin Coe
Victories for God?
The victories by Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee in the Iowa caucuses last week make one thing clear: In America's heartland, the God strategy works. Recent history suggests it won't stop there. In this approach presidential candidates make their religious faith demonstrably public and wield it as a campaign centerpiece. Out is a traditional wall of separation; in is a "bridge between church and state" that George W. Bush -- who used the God strategy to perfection in 2000 and 2004 -- offered early in his presidency. This is not how it's always been. more

StreetProphets January 05, 2008 / David Domke
Huckabee’s Dog Whistle
An interesting discussion today on language used by Mike Huckabee in his campaign. He is fond of talking about "vertical" politics rather than "horizontal" politics. This is definitely dog-whistle politics -- that is, a message delivered in coded terminology and targeted to a particular subcultural group. Conservative evangelicals often talk about the need to prioritize their vertical relationships with God first and foremost before worrying about horizontal relationships among people. It's the individualized "get right with God" approach of conservative Protestantism. more

Counterpunch January 3, 2008 / David Domke
The Echoing Press and Huckabee
The big-media, big-name journalists who cover presidential nomination races regularly get used by politicians. Happens all the time, whether it's 2007 or 2008. Here's how it commonly occurs. What happens is that candidates or their supporters deliver a message to the press, then the candidate claims to be above such a message, or disavows or apologizes for the message afterward -- all the time watching the message amplify across press outlets. I call this the "echoing press" approach to U.S. politics, in which journalists become inevitable tools of the campaigns. more