Months ago, the mainstream media announced with confidence the presidential race would come down to Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family Action, was pressured to support the pro-abortion Giuliani in order to defeat Clinton.
Not so fast, said Dr. Dobson.
"We have seen elections, that they're very dynamic, they're volatile, they change," he told conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity in October. "We're assuming that Hillary is going to win. A lot of things happen in a campaign. All kinds of changes can occur. Candidates can fall on their faces."
Dr. Dobson was right: By the end of the day today, both Giuliani and former Sen. John Edwards were expected to be out of the running.
Dr. Dobson went on to say his pro-life values come first, not the electability of a candidate.
"I evaluate the principles and the values that I care about most, that I've worked for most of my life, and then I have to determine who is most closely aligned with those values," he said.
Gary Schneeberger, vice president of media and public relations at Focus Action, said media consumers have to take what they hear about the election from pundits — even conservative pundits — with a large grain of salt.
"We have to remember, especially in this 24-hour-news-cycle culture, that reporters and editors and analysts get paid to fill up airwaves and news pages," he said. "Their job is to have something to say every minute of every day — and that leaves them sometimes with little to do but find different ways to state the same opinion. That's what was happening this fall with the Giuliani candidacy — the conventional wisdom was that he was destined for the GOP nomination. Well, as it turns out, the conventional wisdom wasn't that wise."
"Dr. Dobson has never been someone who takes stands or issues statements based on polls. He just doesn't put a lot of stock in them — particularly when they are trying to predict who is going to win a presidential election that at the time was more than a year away.
"Some people scoffed at him when he said, 'Hold on, there's a lot of campaigning still to do.' But time has proven him right."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
If you missed Tuesday night's live webcast concerning the Florida primary, you can watch it now at CitizenLink.com. Tom Minnery of Focus Action, Tony Perkins of FRC Action and John Stemberger of Florida Family Action discuss the impact of values voters, as well as the status of the state's marriage protection amendment.
CANDIDATE COMMENTARY
Where do they stand on pro-family issues?
