Weak Reed: Religious right operative fails to deliver on grandiose election promises
Unfortunately, all I heard when I picked up was a woman’s voice ask, ‘Is this Mr. Boston?’ before the line went dead.
The next evening, Reed tried once more. And again I jumped up from the couch (sending an alarmed cat scurrying upstairs) and grabbed the phone before the second ring. This time, I didn’t even hear a voice, just a dial tone.
If this was an example of Reed’s much-vaunted voter outreach, it leaves something to be desired.
The fact is, Reed had a bad night Nov. 6. Months prior to the election, he bragged about his plans to distribute 25 million voter guides and reach out to more than 100,000 churches. An army of right-wing evangelicals, he said, would march into the nation’s voting booths and propel Mitt Romney to the White House.
Sorry, Ralph, but it appears your army went missing in action.
Conservative columnist Steve Deace says Religious Right evangelical turnout actually dropped in two key states – Virginia and Florida.
‘The exit polls also said white evangelical turnout in Virginia was down 7% from 2008, and Romney did not improve evangelical turnout in Florida from four years ago while losing about 40,000 to libertarian Gary Johnson,’ wrote Deace.
Christianity Today reported that evangelical support for the GOP ticket also dropped in Ohio, the mother of all battleground states. It was only a 3-point drop, but in a tight race that might have made a difference.
‘In Ohio, Romney had a more difficult time convincing evangelicals to support him,’ reported the magazine. ‘In 2008, McCain received 71 percent of evangelical votes in Ohio. Exit polls this year don’t show much change, with 68 percent of evangelicals voting for the Republican ticket.’