It makes perfect sense that Obama is courting, and will win the support of, many young evangelicals in November. Many Gen-Xers and Millennials are exhausted by a Christianity that does nothing but throw rocks at “da-big-bad-culture” and, for some 40 years, seems to care more about gaining power in the federal government than loving and serving their neighbor. Obama has wisely tapped into the angst of an entire generation of people who heard sermons about abortion on “Right-To-Life Sunday” but never heard sermons about Christians needing to fight for children forced into sex slavery.

Why is sex slavery not a “Right-To-Life” issue?

The religious right revolution of the 1980s was witnessed by a generation who now understand, in adulthood, that being a Republican and a Christian are not necessarily synonymous. As a matter of fact, the only political party with values consistent with Christian political thought over the centuries is the Constitution Party. Some have lamented the seemingly blind allegiance by Christians and others to a Republican party that many have argued is moving closer and closer toward big-government statism. But is there really any political party that consistently holds to the priorities of the Kingdom?

The Constitution Party has the following seven principles:

1. Life: For all human beings, from conception to natural death;
2. Liberty: Freedom of conscience and actions for the self-governed individual;
3. Family: One husband and one wife with their children as divinely instituted;
4. Property: Each individual’s right to own and steward personal property without government burden;
5. Constitution: and Bill of Rights interpreted according to the actual intent of the Founding Fathers;
6. States’ Rights: Everything not specifically delegated by the Constitution to the federal government is reserved for the state and local jurisdictions;
7. American Sovereignty: American government committed to the protection of the borders, trade, and common defense of Americans, and not entangled in foreign alliances.

So why aren’t Christians, en masse, joining the Constitution Party? It may have something to do with the fact that for most Christians, our theology really does not inform our politics. Politics and faith are two unrelated compartments for most of us, if we’re honest. This compartmentalization, in part, explains why so many evangelicals uncritically embrace the socialistic and Marxist visions of Jim Wallis, Wendell Berry, Shane Claiborne, Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, and so on.

At least in the U.K., leftist Christians are honest about their socialism and have formed the Christian Socialist Movement (CSM). The Christian socialists have “a radical commitment to social justice, to protecting the environment and to fostering peace and reconciliation.” Sound familiar?  ”We believe that ‘loving our neighbour’ in the fullest sense involves struggling for a fair and just society, one in which all can enjoy the ‘fullness of life’ Jesus came to announce,” CSM declares.

Jim Wallis’ Sojourners group, “Christians for Justice and Peace,” also has a mission “to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.” Why don’t we just call it for what it really is?  Christian socialism.

Regardless of what happens in November, Christian voting trends in this election season reveal a need for more teaching about God’s desires for His world and the church’s role in building civil society. While it could be good that Christians are all over the political map in this political season, it could also be a sign that we’re all confused at the moment.

Hillary Clinton, now that Barack Obama seems to have clinched the Democratic party’s nomination, has the power hungriness to leak that she would be interested in running with Obama.

Why? For the sake of unifying the party, right? “For the party” rhetoric would be the big, heaping hill of beans that Hillary and Bill would have us believe. The Clinton’s lust for power is unprecedented and Obama unwisely running with the Clintons would certainly set John McCain for a victory in November.

CNN projects that Obama’s steady stream of superdelegate endorsements, combined with the delegates he received from Tuesday’s primaries, put him past the 2,118 threshold and would lead to a definitive nomination by the Democrats.

“Tonight we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another — a journey that will bring a new and better day to America,” Obama said. “Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States.”

If he is chosen, would it be wise to take Hillary up on her offer to help him? Would she not actually be a huge liability? Liberals don’t even like Hillary Clinton. The recent vitriol from those at Vanity Fair magazine is just a glimpse and how unwise, silly, and potentially dangerous it would be to have a Clinton as a running mate. It is sad, but people actually hate the Clintons.

Todd Purdum over at Vanity Fair had this to say about Bill Clinton recently:

Old friends and longtime aides are wringing their hands over Bill Clinton’s post-White House escapades, from the dubious (and secretive) business associations to the media blowups that have bruised his wife’s campaign, to the private-jetting around with a skirt-chasing, scandal-tinged posse. Some point to Clinton’s medical traumas; others blame sheer selfishness, and the absence of anyone who can say “no.” Exploring Clintonworld, the author asks if the former president will be consumed by his own worst self.

Why would Obama even take Hillary up on her offer after the mud she’s thrown at him over the past few months when it became clear that the Clinton’s lust for power may go unrealized. Given the Clinton’s history, how could he even trust her?

Winning against an Obama/Clinton ticket would like Kobe Bryant playing basketball with a middle-school basketball team. The nation is not ready to have, as some have argued, two candidates whose views are so close to those of socialistic European nations. Obama would be wise to choose a more moderate candidate, which will not be hard to find, as a buffer for the explosion of government programming he has proposed.

McCain cannot lose against an Obama/Clinton ticket. It would be the political gift that keeps on giving. The Democratic party is in such pathetic disarray that joining the “wonder twins” (Obama and Clinton) would do very little for a party who sets rules and then changes them at the end.

Now that Obama is making history, what type of running mate should he choose? What should McCain do to prepare to run against Obama, when the Democrats officially knight him?

Former Georgia Republican Rep. Bob Barr launched a Libertarian Party presidential bid Monday, promising an alternative to the big government approaches of all three presidential candidates. While in Congress, Barr was a key leader in the impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton. Seeing that Republicans are no longer fiscal conservatives, Barr left the Republican Party two years ago.

Barr’s campaign platform includes themes that Republicans of old used to value. Barr believes that government spending at all levels is out of control.

Tens of billions of dollars in corporate welfare - essentially aid to dependent corporations - should be eliminated. Largesse for middle- and upper-income Americans, particularly so-called “entitlement” programs, must be cut. Billions in so-called defense spending, which protects America’s populous, prosperous allies rather than Americans, must be eliminated.

Barr would push to adopt a national sales tax, replacing the Internal Revenue Service and all federal income taxes, as well as payroll taxes. Barr would also push to repeal the 16th amendment, which authorizes Congress to levy an income tax in order to keep his fair tax proposal permanent.

Barr disagrees with government making surrogate decisions about the lives of citizens, seeking to restore our founding fathers’ belief in liberty and recognizing that responsible citizenship requires everyone to be held accountable for the good and bad decisions they make. Barr says, “the sustained government attack on the sanctity of the rights of the individual, including their right to be secure in their privacy and property, has created a moral and Constitutional crisis.”

On immigration, Barr wants to restrict access to public services for undocumented aliens because, to date, such access exists to the detriment of those who would enter the country to work productively and also increases the burden on taxpayers.

On national defense, Barr is tired of using the U.S. military as the world’s police force: “Our great military has been too willingly and quickly used for purposes other than national defense.” Barr wants to use our military when foreign aggressors attack, not simply for interventionist initiatives.

Although Barr may have entered the race too late, there are millions of Americans who might be willing to vote for Barr to protest government monopoly power and spending promoted by both Democrats and Republicans, as some have recently argued. Over the past decade, Barr reminds us, total government spending nationwide (state, local and federal) has increased from $2.9 trillion to $5.1 trillion in 2008.

For those looking for real change in Washington in 2008, Bob Barr may pose a challenge to both big government Republicans and even bigger government Democrats.

In what the Washington Post calls a “remarkable twist,” Hillary Clinton announced that she loaned her own campaign $5 million in January. Her communications director, Howard Wolfson, confirmed the news yesterday, spinning the loan as an example of Clinton’s “commitment to this effort and to ensuring that our campaign has the resources it needs to compete and win across this nation.”

The loan is surprising considering the fact Clinton’s campaign raised $115.7 million in one year, exceeding her own goal of $75 million. On January 9, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe reported that the campaign had an excess of $25 million going into Super Tuesday.

The loan may project weakness at a time when Clinton and Barack Obama are neck-and-neck for the nomination and Obama is winning the race for cash. In January, Obama’s campaign raised $32 million to Clinton’s $13.5 million. Clinton sent out a plea to supporters this week, asking them to help her raise $3 million in 3 days. Obama’s campaign raised $3 million in one day. There is also news that several of Clinton’s senior staffers are going without pay for the month of February in a “show of solidarity,” Wolfson said.

Clinton has emphasized that the loan was her own money to avoid association with her husband Bill’s shady financial dealings. Clinton’s news comes after the New York Times reported that Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation received a hefty donation from a mining financier who cut a lucrative mining deal after accompanying the former president on a visit to Kazakhstan.

It isn’t the largest loan a candidate has made to his own campaign. In the last quarter, Mitt Romney loaned his campaign $18 million – twice the amount he raised from others – and spent $645,000 on each delegate. According to the New York Times, other candidates could get some tips on campaign spending from Mike Huckabee, who has stretched his scanty resources and spent the least ($45,000) per delegate. Clinton has spent twice that amount per delegate and Obama has spent even more — $119,000.

The Clinton campaign machine is sucking wind like a Hoover vacuum cleaner, now that Hillary’s passive-aggressive, race-oriented attacks against Obama clearly backfired. Hillary’s huge loss in Georgia, where the Democratic base is largely black, sends the Clintons a strong message: Many black Democrats don’t like you after all. Hillary does not own the so-called “black vote.”

Although Obama won several states, he still trails in pledged delegates. Obama’s strongest wins were in his home state of Illinois and Georgia, where he’ll receive a significant share of the 288 delegates in those states.

Obama also won North Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, and Utah with 278 delegates up for grabs.

Clinton won her home state of New York and somehow managed to confuse Democrats in New Jersey and Massachusetts by winning in those states. Clinton has also duped Democrats in Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Arizona, and has won a sizable share of the 235 delegates in those states.

With very little ideological difference between Clinton and Obama it seems that Democrats cannot decide if they want a half-African as president or a woman.

The Republicans, on the other hand, are in the midst of an obvious identity crisis. Republican strategists are likely hoping that Clinton wins the Democratic nomination (which will probably happen) because a short, 71-year-old white guy doesn’t stand a chance against Obama if the Republicans choose McCain.

Conservatives understand why Dobson, Coulter, Limbaugh, and others are against McCain. Many wonder if he’s actually a conservative. “John McCain is not only bad for Republicanism, which he definitely is - he is bad for the country,” says Ann Coulter.

Additionally, it seems that America is ready for something different than a white male in the White House. Why are Republicans so incapable of producing a non-white male or female electable candidate for the office of president? Alan Keyes is totally unelectable, too quirky, and should never be encouraged to run for public office ever again. Moreover, the passing-over of J.C. Watts while he was in the House was truly scandalous.

As a result of Republican’s inability to construct a cohesive message and cultivate candidates that represent a changing America, a decisive loss should be expected in November, especially if Obama emerges as the Democrat’s choice.

Super Tuesday will be key to deciding the presidential nominees but don’t expect the race for the nomination to end today — especially for the Democrats. McCain’s lead over Romney is widening, and if he captures the most states and delegates tonight he should emerge the clear victor. Obama has narrowed Clinton’s once-wide lead and Democrats award victory based on a combination of popular vote, delegates won, and states won. Expect some spin once the votes come in.

WHAT’S AT STAKE

• 3, 516 delegates in 24 states.

• Republicans need 1,191 delegates to win the party’s nomination. Current tally: John McCain 93, Mitt Romney 77, and Mike Huckabee 40.

• Democrats need 2,025 delegates to win. Current tally: Barack Obama 190, Hillary Clinton 261.

VOTERS TO WATCH

• Women. Clinton consistently pulls women voters, but Obama has recruited female campaigners like Oprah, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, and his wife Michelle. Will exit polls show that he’s gaining support among women voters?

• Hispanics. Clinton proved her popularity with Hispanics in Florida and Nevada, and McCain’s immigration policies are popular with Hispanic voters. Can their opponents take Hispanic votes?

• Conservative evangelicals. McCain’s gains have been mostly among moderate and liberal Republicans. Can he capture the support of the Republican base?

STATES TO WATCH

• California: 173 GOP delegates, 441 Democratic delegates. Clinton’s lead is shrinking and polls say she has 36% to Obama’s 34%. McCain has 32% to Romney’s 24%.

• New York: 101 GOP delegates, 281 Democratic delegates. Thanks to Giuliani’s blessing, McCain is polling 54% to Romney’s 22%. This is a Clinton stronghold, but Obama has won endorsements from African-American leaders there.

• New Jersey: 127 Democratic delegates. Obama’s momentum has spread to New Jersey, and it’s no longer clearly Clinton country. Current polls say Clinton 48%, Obama 43%.

• Massachusetts: 43 GOP delegates, 121 Democratic delegates. Another state where Clinton’s lead has shrunk (Obama 46%, Clinton 44%), thanks to Sen. Ted Kennedy’s endorsement. Romney still polls 50% to McCain’s 37%, but analysts say McCain is gaining momentum. If he wins, it may strike a fatal blow to the Romney campaign.

• Missouri : 58 GOP delegates, 88 Democratic delegates. This is a state with a large number of evangelicals, and McCain is polling 37% to Romney 24%. It’s another close state for the Democrats with Clinton at 47% and Obama at 41%.

• Arizona: 67 Democratic delegates. This state is key for the Hispanic vote, and (for the Democrats at least) it’s up for grabs.

• Georgia: 72 GOP delegates. Another state with a big evangelical population, it’s a close three-way race between McCain (33%), Romney (27%), and Huckabee (17%).

• Alabama: 48 delegates. A close state for both Democrats and Republicans, with Democrats watching the black vote and Republicans stumping for the evangelicals. Among Republicans, 29% are undecided, 25% are with Huckabee 25%, and 22% are for McCain. Where will the undecided voters go?

So says Oprah Winfrey, who over the weekend told women viewers they should not feel guilty about supporting a man over a woman for president:

“Being free means you get to think for yourself,” she said, “and you get to decide for yourself what to do.”

Responding to criticism she received after stumping for Barack Obama, Winfrey said she’s not a traitor to her gender, as some had alleged: “I’m just following my own truth, and that truth has led me to Barack Obama.”

President Bush talked about his alcohol use with former prisoners at a faith-based program, calling his alcoholism an addiction for the first time and sharing the role faith played in his recovery. Here’s a video of the men’s response.

GodTube is tapping its pool of 250,000 registered users and taking an unscientific presidential election poll. Mike Huckabee wins the Christian vote, and Obama comes in second.

The Pew Forum finds some common themes in this year’s raucous presidential primary. The election matters to voters, Republican turnout lags behind Democratic turnout, independent voters are playing a big role, and for Democrats, race and gender matters more than issues.

It’s the Super Bowl Blitz, and companies are exploring ways to expand the impact of the $2.7 million they pay for a 30-second Super Bowl ad. This means taking ads online, so check Yahoo, Google, YouTube and MySpace this Sunday.

The world’s aging population will have an effect on international politics. Researchers say a high youth population and high unemployment rates can be an environment to breed resentment and terrorism. As the youth population gets older, areas like Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are due to stabilize soon.

A family buried their son, only to discover years later that they’d left his brain behind in the hands of a coroner. Their lawsuit may change the way we treat the deceased.

American scientists have taken a step towards creating artificial life. They have created all the genetic material for a synthetic chromosome. If they can successfully insert it into another bacterium and make it reproduce, they can claim to have created life. Controversial scientist Craig Venter says, “It puts a lot of power in the hands of humans.”

Evangelicals may have helped deliver Bush the presidency, proving that when evangelical “values voters” unite, they wield enough power to determine the outcomes of elections. But times have changed, and despite their influence on the early primaries, the evangelical electorate is increasingly fractured.

A Pew Research Center poll, published Wednesday, revealed that religion divides conservative voters. Among non-evangelical conservatives, Mitt Romney leads all of his rivals, including Mike Huckabee and John McCain. But among conservative evangelicals, Mike Huckabee has 33% of the vote, John McCain (South Carolina’s likely winner) has 25%, and Fred Thompson has 15%. Romney comes in last with 12% of evangelical support, raising questions about Romney’s chances of garnering enough evangelical support to secure the Republican nomination.

Prominent evangelical leaders have made scattered endorsements that reflect the lack of unity. Pat Robertson endorsed Guliani because of his stance on terrorism, while James Dobson refused to endorse him because of his pro-abortion positions and marred marital history. The National Right to Life endorsed Thompson, a top official at Bob Jones University in South Carolina endorsed Romney, and the evangelical blogosphere has largely thrown its weight behind Huckabee.

Could a fractured conservative vote mean that moderate and liberal Republicans will decide the nomination? Two-thirds of Republicans describe themselves as conservatives, and Republican voters see McCain as the most liberal GOP candidate next to Giuliani. Still, McCain leads his rivals with 29% of GOP support nationwide, thanks to moderate and liberal Republicans who support him two to one against his rivals. Huckabee (seen as the most conservative) comes second with 20% of GOP support, and Romney garners 17%.

Whatever the outcome of the South Carolina primary, the Republican Party faces a number of obstacles in securing the White House. It must not only surmount divisions in one of its most powerful voting blocks, but also put forth a candidate who can overcome wide-spread dissatisfaction with the current Republican administration. This dissatisfaction makes charismatic Democrats’ promises of “change” attractive to undecided, non-religious voters.