Steve, thanks for the welcome! I look forward to arguing politics during this campaign season. And yeah, it would make sense for them to support Huckabee if they were only concerned about the social issues but the group also includes fiscal conservatives who can’t support Huckabee.
As to the demise of the religious right, I think you guys are burying the body while it’s still warm. Here we are debating their decisions, the press has been speculating about their meetings and who they will support and the candidates have been meeting with them and courting them. And they were able to assembly enough people to hold the straw poll which was reported and blogged about by quite a few people on the Internet. And here we are still talking about it.
I agree that the influence of Dobson et al., has waned among the rank-and-file. One of the reasons that I started Reformed Chicks was to say to the world that they don’t speak for all Christians, that some of us have a different worldview and that will impact how we view politics, culture and society.
But I think they’re here to stay and will be the go-to Christians for the press and the politicians just as Sharpton and Jackson are the go-to civil rights leaders.