Often considered a voting block of boogey man proportions, the Christian right is most likely not going to buy what Barack Obama is selling; while some relish the fact that the candidate speaks out about faith and politics, those with an ear to hear are somewhat flabbergasted. The self professed Christian who is a member of a predominantly black church that concerns itself with supporting “blackness” in its various forms he has gotten up the Christian conservatives' ire by advocating a new way of discussing faith.
USA Election Polls shows that Obama's support is slipping or stagnating all around. In southern states he has not improved his support from the January polling figures of 18.3% and instead August numbers reveal that he is still (or once again) at 18.3%. In western states his support waned by about 2%. Obviously, this cannot all be laid at the doorstep of his religious overtones, but for Christian conservatives the candidate who held the most promise with respect to uniting warring political factions suddenly has lost his luster.
Calling for a change in the way that religious minded concerns are addressed in the public arena so as to be more universally appealingly worded, those who are hard-nosed as well as hard-lined when it comes to the practice of their religion will most likely not see him as a real alternative. While this most likely will have little bearing on his odds of being elected during the primaries, in the run for the presidency – should he receive his party's nomination – this stand could prove to be a serious deterrent for some voters.
> View the online archive of the latest 2008 presidential polls.
