Liberal Values Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought

As I suspect that Peggy Noonan isn’t high on the reading lists of readers here I thought I would repeat a paragraph from her op-ed on John McCain:

In 2000 he felt he could take on Christian conservative leaders in the South. Bad timing. In 2000 they were at the peak of their 20 years of power. Now their followers are tired and questioning after a generation of political activism. And many leaders seem compromised–dinged after all that time in the air. Mr. McCain could rebuke them now and thrive. Instead he decided to attempt to embrace them.

It does seem that the power of the religious right has weakened. Still we see McCain embracing them, Romney flip flopping to sound like one of them (even if they don’t accept his brand of religion) and Giuliani trying to convince them that their disagreements are trivial. I hope Noonan can convince Republicans that it is not necessary to embrace the religious right. Perhaps she is smart enough to realize that this is the only way the GOP can make a come back in the near future.