Poll: Weak Christian Support Could Enable Pro-Abortion Obama to Beat McCain
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 27, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — If Barack Obama, described by pro-life groups as the most pro-abortion presidential candidate since the 1973, becomes president pro-life voters may have themselves to blame. New polling data shows evangelical Christian voters, typically the most pro-life voting group, failing to strongly support John McCain.
A new survey from the Barna Group, a Christian research firm, finds evangelical voters preferring McCain over Obama by a 63 percent to 23 percent group.
While that’s a strong lead, President Bush pulled in 85 percent of those voters in 2004 when he won a narrow victory over pro-abortion candidate John Kerry.
Barna looked at self-identified born-again Christians, who do not describe themselves as evangelical. The support McCain over Obama by a scant 45 percent to 43 percent margin, which is within the survey’s margin of error. In 2004, 62% of this category voted for Bush.
Overall, the Barna survey shows 60 percent of faith voters support Barack Obama while only 49 percent backed Kerry in 2004.
The lack of support for McCain’s candidacy from these voters who compose a large segment of the Republican base helps explain why McCain has been unable to have a more solid hold on states Bush won in the last two elections.
Without the strong support from these mostly pro-life voters, states like Indiana, North Carolina, Missouri, North Dakota, and other red states from 2000 and 2004 would be more solidly behind McCain. As a result, he would be able to focus more attention on capturing swing states from Obama such as Pennsylvania, Minnesota or Wisconsin.
David Brody, a national correspondent with CBN News, talks about the effect of this polling data on the election.
He says the numbers clearly show how Obama has worked hard to court Christian voters while McCain has not been as active as President Bush in reaching out to them.
"Yes, Sarah Palin has helped mobilize and motivate conservative Evangelicals to support the McCain/Palin ticket to a certain degree. The numbers clearly show that," he said.
"But remember, the Obama campaign has been talking faith and values from the very beginning of their primary campaign. They have been in small communities explaining Obama’s positions and how faith plays a major role in shaping them. That effort seems to be paying off because they were able to define who Obama is early," Brody explained.
The Barna survey results make it clear that the pro-life movement needs a strong last-minute push to reach Christian voters if it wants to make sure Obama and his pro-abortion views don’t rule the White House for the next four years.
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