John Edwards told a crowd in Iowa yesterday that Democratic candidates could win Christian voters if they’re genuine, The Des Monies Register reports:

Committed Christians can be attracted to the Democratic side if the party’s presidential nominee projects an honest interest in tackling moral issues, candidate John Edwards said here Sunday.
Edwards pointed specifically to poverty and the fact that millions of people have no health care coverage.
“Those are things that Christians care about, that people of faith in general care about,” he said. “I think that Iowa caucusgoers and the faith community can spot a phony a mile away. They can tell, when they look at you and when they listen to you talk, whether you say what you really believe, whether it comes from within.”
The former North Carolina senator was answering a question from Debra Koenig, an undecided Algona Democrat who said she is worried that Republicans will continue to draw many Christian voters.

Could Edwards’s line about Iowans being able to “smell a phony a mile away” be a dig at one of his Democratic rivals, perhaps one that he’s suggested has been co-opted by a corrupt political system? Coming on the heels of his appearance on the Christian Broadcasting Network, God-o-Meter was tempted to read this comment as part of a new Edwards faith offensive, but it came in response to a very targeted question about Democrats winning over Christians. Still, GOM will keep its eyes peeled.

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