Obama could get 40% of the Evangelical vote

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A well-connected authority in the evangelical world said in an interview this week that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama could get up to 40 percent of the evangelical vote.

The fascination with the charismatic Illinois senator combined with evangelicals’ effort to not be seen as an appendage of the Republican Party could swing evangelical voters in Obama’s favor, predicted Mark DeMoss –

“I will not be surprised if he gets one third of the evangelical vote,” DeMoss said in the interview. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 40 percent.”

For comparison, the public relations guru pointed out that one-third of white evangelicals had voted for former president Bill Clinton in his 1996 re-election bid during the “height of [the] Monica Lewinsky mess.”

In terms of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, DeMoss spoke about the lack of enthusiasm within the evangelical circle for [McCain]. He said that for months now he hasn’t received an e-mail, letter, or phone call from fellow evangelicals urging that they unite behind McCain and “put aside whatever differences we have.”

“It’s just very quiet. It could mean there’s a real sense of apathy or it could mean they’re waiting for the general election to begin,” he said. “But it’s a surprise, given the way e-mail networks work now.”

On McCain’s part, he hasn’t done much to reach out to DeMoss either. DeMoss said he has received one phone call from a McCain staffer about a month ago asking if he would like to help campaign for McCain. But the evangelical leader, who had enthusiastically campaigned for former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, turned down the invitation.

“I told him that I’m a conservative first and a Republican second,” he said. “I was inclined to vote for Senator McCain but not to get involved beyond that.”

link: The Christian Post

This should be yet another wake-up call for Team McCain...