The Daily Background

So, everyone is buzzing about McCain and Obama’s appearance at Rick Warren’s evangelical Saddleback church on Saturday night. The truth is, it was much more important for McCain than it was for Obama.

For Obama, it was a chance to pick up a few votes in a constituency that Democrats don’t traditionally count on, and he may have won some votes (he certainly didn’t lose any that he might have gotten had he performed differently).

For McCain, it was a more important opportunity: he needed to suck up to the religious right whose support he has so far failed to clinch. This is a key constituency that Republicans have depended on for years, and although McCain by no means did himself a disservice last night, still has a long ways to go.

For all the hubbub, not much has changed. The odds are still that a significant portion of previously-dependable conservative religious voters will stay home this November, and a significant portion of evangelicals will actually for for Obama. McCain was in full suck-up mode for the most part, although you can only do so much in a single appearance. He still has a long ways to go to get anywhere near the level of electoral support that George W. Bush enjoyed in his narrow 2004 win, and this is probably one of the things that worries Republican strategists the most.

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