George,

Should even one errant Republican corpuscle wander into my blood stream, generations of tenderly-nourished Dem cells would destroy it. That said, it is with astonishment and despair - as well as my total devotion to the candidacy of Barack Obama - that I am close to cheering for either war-mad John McCain or ideologically bewildered Mitt Romney to get the nomination of the Gross Old Party.

Why? Because rather than an evangelical, I would settle for an aged professional warrior or a carefully coiffed Morman. When a fanatic like Mike Huckabee states his belief that the Constitution should be amended to reflect the Bible, this non-believer's blood congeals to fear-chilled ice. The religious fervor of those who delight in "loving the sinner, but hating the sin" are beyond any shade of pale.

What has happened to our country? What is going on when choosing a President on the basic of his or her faith is countenanced? Is a choice that voters are taking into consideration? The evangelicals will not rest until they have converted a freedom-of-religion Republic into a theocracy. They - more than all our supposed enemies, many of them driven to terrorism by our invasion and occupation - are the true and real danger.

Barbara Rich (January 20, 2008)