Evangelicals to McCain: No Romney

Er, barbecue guests

(NEWSER) - John McCain may claim he’s just having Bobby Jindal, Charlie Crist, and Mitt Romney over for a barbecue this weekend, but it’s pretty clear the GOP’s presumptive nominee is really scouting VP candidates. So Politico ran down the merits of each potential ticket filler:

• Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is young, ethnic, and extremely accomplished, especially in domestic policy, a McCain weak spot. But would the 36-year-old make McCain look too old?

He calls GOP campaign so far 'disastrous'

(NEWSER) - John McCain stopped by CBS This Morning today and held forth on a number of topics, including health care reform, the GOP presidential contest, and most amusingly, the vice presidential sweepstakes. Asked who Mitt Romney should choose as his running mate, McCain, unable to keep a straight face, replied, "I think it should be Sarah Palin." The studio laughed appreciably, and McCain dutifully listed some more plausible candidates. "Obviously, it's a tough choice," he said, smiling again. More»

When he was a kid; but revelation could complicate shot at VP nom

(NEWSER) - Marco Rubio is seen by many as the GOP's frontrunner for the 2012 vice presidential nod—but that could change for the faction of the GOP that's ill at ease with the Mormon church. BuzzFeed reveals that the Florida senator was once a Mormon, having been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around age eight, though he had returned to the Catholic Church by age 13. Rubio's cousins told the story to BuzzFeed, and a Rubio spokesman confirms it, but the site notes that aides appear to see the story as potentially detrimental and have gone into damage-control mode. More»

Evangelicals only group becoming more aware of his religion

(NEWSER) - Despite Mitt Romney's religion getting plenty of press—especially when a Rick Perry backer called it a cult —fewer than half of Americans know that he is a Mormon, according to a new poll. The Public Religion Research Institute poll found that 42% correctly identified him as a Mormon; 6% believed he was a Catholic or a Protestant, and 45% said they didn't know what Romney's religion was, the Hill reports. That's virtually unchanged from the 40% who were aware of his religion in July. More»

Obama 'has given faith more thought and reflection,' Cizik writes

(NEWSER) - The presidential race is a contest between different sets of philosophy, writes Richard Cizik, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. In an NAE newsletter, Cizik says Barack Obama is “a thinker who sees the grays in ethical choices” while McCain opts for the “clarity of moral opposites”—and that Obama “has given faith more thought and reflection” than McCain. More»