Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer speaks at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, Monday, March 7, 2011, at the Point of Grace Church in Waukee, Iowa.
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
1:17 AM, Mar. 8, 2011
Written by
THOMAS BEAUMONT and REID FORGRAVE
Five Republican presidential prospects Monday professed before an influential audience of Iowa evangelical conservatives how religious faith ought to blend with public life.
But some of the five potential candidates who spoke to the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition's spring kickoff event in Waukee balanced their calls for a more conservative moral code with appeals for unity across the conservative spectrum in trying to solve the nation's vexing economic problems.
It was the first group appearance of the developing campaign for the Iowa caucuses and an opportunity for a first impression with an active and loyal segment of the Republican caucus electorate. Iowa polls have shown that about 45 percent of Iowa's caucus and primary voting base consider themselves evangelical Christians.
However, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty also used their speeches to the audience of about 1,500 at a Waukee church to remind the audience it will take a unified conservative front to retake the White House next year.
"We're all going to have to be on the same team when this is over," Gingrich said. "It's going to take all of us to defeat the left."
Gingrich, who last week began raising money to explore seeking the 2012 nomination, proposed a series of executive orders that he argued could quickly set a more socially conservative tone in the federal government.
They include issues that resonated with the audience at the evangelical, theater-style suburban church: reinstating policies banning federal spending on international organizations that provide abortions and allowing doctors and nurses to refuse as a matter of conscience to perform abortions.
They also include eliminating the high-level White House advisers known by their opponents as czars and requiring the U.S. State Department to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
Gingrich said in a Des Moines Register interview earlier Monday that the array of presidential orders would appeal to the entire spectrum of conservatives.
Gingrich and Pawlenty drew on the Declaration of Independence to support their arguments that government service and religious faith have been intertwined since the nation's inception.
"It means that power comes from God to each one of you personally," Gingrich said. "You loan power to the government. The government does not loan power to you."
Pawlenty also hit the themes of opposing abortion rights and gay marriage, a particularly hot issue among conservatives in Iowa, where the state supreme court struck down a statutory gay-marriage ban in 2009.
"We have people in Washington, D.C., who say marriage will be defined however we feel like defining it," Pawlenty said. "No, it won't. It should be defined as between a man and a woman."
But he also said Americans would have to come together to solve the nation's biggest challenges, as they did during pivotal moments in history.
"This ain't about easy," he said. "This is about rolling up our sleeves, plowing ahead and getting the job done."
Rounding out the presidential prospects who attended the event were former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
About 150 state, national and international media representatives covered the event.
Of the five, Gingrich, Pawlenty and Santorum have visited Iowa most often and signaled plans to run all-out for the caucuses. Pawlenty said Monday he was at most weeks away from an announcement about his presidential plans.
The balance between social and economic issues is one that has been an early topic of debate in the developing Republican contest.
National Faith & Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed, a featured guest at the event, jabbed at potential presidential candidate Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, though not by name, for his comment suggesting social issues take a back seat to the economy and federal debt.
Daniels was not at the event, nor were other GOP prospects including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Reed said social conservatives helped turn the midterm elections for Republicans last year, and would again for the White House in 2012.
"In spite of all the talk of it being about the economy and jobs - and clearly economy and jobs were critical - they found that 32 percent of the entire electorate on Nov. 2 was made up of conservative and evangelical Christians, who voted 78-to-21 Republican," Reed said. "And they were the booster rocket that drove the biggest off-year landslide in a century, and they will be key to victory in 2012 again."
The Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll taken the week before the 2008 Republican caucuses showed 46 percent of likely GOP caucusgoers considered themselves born-again or fundamentalist Christians. The same poll showed 41 percent of Republican caucusgoers said they preferred a fiscal conservative; 26 percent said a social conservative.
Santorum said that he had played key roles as a member of the U.S. House on domestic policy, such as health care and welfare reform. But he spent most of his time on his reputation as an abortion opponent.
Santorum recalled that during his Senate career he offered the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2002.
"If a child is born as a result of a quote 'botched' abortion, then that child is entitled to medical protection and entitled to treatment," Santorum said. "To my knowledge in this country it was only one person on the floor of any state legislature who stood up and opposed it. That happens to be the current president of the United States, who stood up and said he opposed this bill because it would impinge on a woman's right on Roe v. Wade."
1:17 AM, Mar. 8, 2011
Written by
THOMAS BEAUMONT and REID FORGRAVE
Five Republican presidential prospects Monday professed before an influential audience of Iowa evangelical conservatives how religious faith ought to blend with public life.
But some of the five potential candidates who spoke to the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition's spring kickoff event in Waukee balanced their calls for a more conservative moral code with appeals for unity across the conservative spectrum in trying to solve the nation's vexing economic problems.
It was the first group appearance of the developing campaign for the Iowa caucuses and an opportunity for a first impression with an active and loyal segment of the Republican caucus electorate. Iowa polls have shown that about 45 percent of Iowa's caucus and primary voting base consider themselves evangelical Christians.
However, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty also used their speeches to the audience of about 1,500 at a Waukee church to remind the audience it will take a unified conservative front to retake the White House next year.
"We're all going to have to be on the same team when this is over," Gingrich said. "It's going to take all of us to defeat the left."
Gingrich, who last week began raising money to explore seeking the 2012 nomination, proposed a series of executive orders that he argued could quickly set a more socially conservative tone in the federal government.
They include issues that resonated with the audience at the evangelical, theater-style suburban church: reinstating policies banning federal spending on international organizations that provide abortions and allowing doctors and nurses to refuse as a matter of conscience to perform abortions.
They also include eliminating the high-level White House advisers known by their opponents as czars and requiring the U.S. State Department to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
Gingrich said in a Des Moines Register interview earlier Monday that the array of presidential orders would appeal to the entire spectrum of conservatives.
Gingrich and Pawlenty drew on the Declaration of Independence to support their arguments that government service and religious faith have been intertwined since the nation's inception.
"It means that power comes from God to each one of you personally," Gingrich said. "You loan power to the government. The government does not loan power to you."
Pawlenty also hit the themes of opposing abortion rights and gay marriage, a particularly hot issue among conservatives in Iowa, where the state supreme court struck down a statutory gay-marriage ban in 2009.
"We have people in Washington, D.C., who say marriage will be defined however we feel like defining it," Pawlenty said. "No, it won't. It should be defined as between a man and a woman."
But he also said Americans would have to come together to solve the nation's biggest challenges, as they did during pivotal moments in history.
"This ain't about easy," he said. "This is about rolling up our sleeves, plowing ahead and getting the job done."
Rounding out the presidential prospects who attended the event were former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
About 150 state, national and international media representatives covered the event.
Of the five, Gingrich, Pawlenty and Santorum have visited Iowa most often and signaled plans to run all-out for the caucuses. Pawlenty said Monday he was at most weeks away from an announcement about his presidential plans.
The balance between social and economic issues is one that has been an early topic of debate in the developing Republican contest.
National Faith & Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed, a featured guest at the event, jabbed at potential presidential candidate Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, though not by name, for his comment suggesting social issues take a back seat to the economy and federal debt.
Daniels was not at the event, nor were other GOP prospects including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Reed said social conservatives helped turn the midterm elections for Republicans last year, and would again for the White House in 2012.
"In spite of all the talk of it being about the economy and jobs - and clearly economy and jobs were critical - they found that 32 percent of the entire electorate on Nov. 2 was made up of conservative and evangelical Christians, who voted 78-to-21 Republican," Reed said. "And they were the booster rocket that drove the biggest off-year landslide in a century, and they will be key to victory in 2012 again."
The Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll taken the week before the 2008 Republican caucuses showed 46 percent of likely GOP caucusgoers considered themselves born-again or fundamentalist Christians. The same poll showed 41 percent of Republican caucusgoers said they preferred a fiscal conservative; 26 percent said a social conservative.
Santorum said that he had played key roles as a member of the U.S. House on domestic policy, such as health care and welfare reform. But he spent most of his time on his reputation as an abortion opponent.
Santorum recalled that during his Senate career he offered the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2002.
"If a child is born as a result of a quote 'botched' abortion, then that child is entitled to medical protection and entitled to treatment," Santorum said. "To my knowledge in this country it was only one person on the floor of any state legislature who stood up and opposed it. That happens to be the current president of the United States, who stood up and said he opposed this bill because it would impinge on a woman's right on Roe v. Wade."
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