Those of you who haven't heard about this summit or the comments made...well, here they are.
http://news.yahoo.com/candidate-romney-woos-social-conservatives-180638437.html
The "Values Voter Summit" summit is sponsored by the Family Research Council, American Family Association (both designated hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center) and other evangelical Christian groups. It cost $75 to hear the speakers and to vote in a non-binding straw pole. Not all the speakers were candidates.
Mitt Romney was attacked by some for his Mormon religion. He countered with a vow to protect families, overturn Roe vs, Wade and oppose gay marriage.
"Poisonous language does not advance our cause," Romney said. "The blessings of faith carry the responsibility of civil and respectful debate. The task before us is to focus on the conservative beliefs and the values that unite us -- let no agenda narrow our vision or drive us apart."
He then waffled by saying the states should decide abortion.
Texas pastor Robert Jeffress, a supporter Rick Perry, said Republicans should not vote for Romney because he is a Mormon cultist after introducing Perry.
Perry said he doesn't believe Mormonism is a cult. Perry was invited by Tony Perkins who is the President of the Family Research Council and former member of Louisiana House of Representatives who was caught in 1996 paying former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,000 for his mailing list, and then tried to hide involvement with Duke. Perry's transcript can be read here:
http://thepage.time.com/2011/10/08/perry-values-voter-summit-transcript/
Bryan Fischer, a director of the American Family Association, is known for inflammatory remarks against homosexuality, non-Christian religions (includes Mormonism), Native Americans, African Americans, Muslims, gays and Hispanics is not a candidate, but was a speaker and followed Romney.
Quote"The next president of the United States needs to be a man ... of sincere authentic genuine Christian faith,".
Fischer said the next U.S. president must deny evolution, stop government assistance for the poor, veto any increase in the debt ceiling and "treat homosexual behavior not as a political cause at all, but as a threat to public health."
He called Islam the greatest long-term threat to U.S. liberty. "Every single mosque in America is a potential recruiting or training cell for Islamic terror," Fischer said.
Fischer thinks separation of church and state is mythical. He believes secular government and evolution result in mass murder like in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Maoist China.
"I submit to you that not a single one of our unalienable rights will be safe," Fischer said, "in the hands of a president who believes that we evolved from slime and that we are the descendents of apes and baboons."
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/individuals/bryan-fischer
For a list of the speakers:
http://www.valuesvotersummit.org/speakers
So Romney spoke of the dangers of poisonous language, yet vowed to ban gay marriage. Yeah it's not poisonous to create an atmosphere conducive to bigotry and hate against one group of people. That atmosphere conducive to bigotry and hate would never lead to bullying, harassment, and violence against homosexuals. I'm sure that's completely not poisonous.
By the way... most of these candidates have bowed to the Libertarian elements of their electorate by verbalizing their distaste for the federal government putting its nose into the business of the states. They verbally support the tenth amendment, claiming the states should have the right to decide certain issues like health care. However, most of them are also in favor of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. In effect, they support the federal government overruling the states in that issue.
None of these mountebanks are worthy of consideration for holding the office of President of the United States, in my opinion. That they are taken seriously at all is only further confirmation of Mencken's assessment: "a battle of charlatans for the votes of idiots." I think that whoever the Republicans nominate stands a very reasonable chance of being elected. The country survived eight years of Bush II and his cronies in being charge; I hope it will survive one of these contemptible asshats holding the highest office in the land.