Huck denies Novak "nonsense"

Robert Novak published a Washington Post column yesterday that has two of its main subjects - Mike Huckabee and Michael Farris - voicing strong objections.

Cushioning the statement with lots of disclaimers, Novak said an anonymous, "experienced, credible activist in Christian politics" told him Huckabee "embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve. That fits what has largely been a fringe position among evangelicals: that the pain of an Obama presidency is in keeping with the Bible's prophecy." The source also said homeschool activist Mike Farris privately embraces the same view.

Novak noted that both Huckabee and Farris denied the source's claim, and they did so again after Novak published his column. Huckabee told ABC News the rumor was "total and absolute nonsense!" and the "unnamed source" was an "unbrained source." On his Huckablog, he demanded, "Where do people dream up this stuff?" If Huckabee really is, as rumored, McCain's top pick for vice president, the information is even less likely to be true, and there's even more reason to loudly deny it.

Mike Farris told God-o-Meter, "I'm not supportive of the Obama presidency for any reason," although he hasn't endorsed McCain and told God-o-Meter he won't mobilize evangelicals to campaign for him.

The column continues the discussion of where the evangelical vote will go this election. Farris' position, says God-o-Meter, is an example of McCain's main problem: Evangelicals may pull the lever for McCain but they won't campaign for him. In the meantime, Democrats are intensifying their efforts to win religious-minded voters. The Plank's Christopher Orr speculates that "a good many non-extreme Christians" will consider Obama as "clearly the more religious of the two candidates, a man who speaks, and has written, evocatively about the role of faith in his life."

But will it work? Spiritual Politics' Mark Silk points out that a Sunday Rasmussen poll found that evangelicals support McCain 69 percent to 28 percent -- possible evidence that most evangelicals don't share the view that the "plague" of an Obama presidency is just what America needs.