WASHINGTON -- The Mitt Romney display table was doing brisk bumper sticker business Friday at a Faith and Freedom Coalition conference here. In terms of presidential candidates, it was the only available option.
Many, if not most, of the 1,500 attendees at the three-day conference for religious conservative activists preferred a candidate other than Romney to be the Republican Party's standard-bearer in the fall against President Barack Obama. Yet, in the wake of a long primary season, they are mobilizing to elect Romney -- primarily because of their antipathy to the current White House occupant.
“They’re not ignorant -- they know,” said Tom Scott of Macon, the Georgia state chairman for the Faith and Freedom Coalition. “They’re fully aware that, hey, there’s only two choices. And every once in a while I’ll find somebody who says they’re going to just sit it out, but it’s very rare.”
There were few mentions of Romney in the series of speeches by Republican bigwigs Friday, with the former governor of Massachusetts due to address the group via satellite Saturday.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Romney “someone who’s made a life of making promises and keeping promises.” Pollster Scott Rasmussen drew a large cheer when he told the crowd his latest tracking poll had Romney ahead of Obama, 47 percent to 45 percent.
But it was Obama who had a starring role, blamed by the speakers for a struggling economy, large deficits and policies that support abortion rights.
“We’re up against a president who’s trying to destroy faith by imposing a secular government and arguing that secular bureaucrats have greater moral authority than religious leaders,” said Newt Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker from Georgia.
Gingrich waged a presidential primary campaign against Romney that was at times bitter and personal, but he has fallen in behind his former rival after quitting the race in May. Gingrich hosted a large fundraiser for Romney earlier this month in Cobb County and has said he will continue traveling the country in support of Romney and all Republican candidates.
He made the pitch Friday by both mocking the president -- “He gave us the Barack Obama worldview, which is: We Americans are stupid and lucky for us, he’s available” -- and giving a grim vision of another four years with Obama at the helm.
“Think of the nightmare of an Obama second term,” Gingrich said. “Romney’s first term would be a dream by comparison, and I really mean it. Just take the question of federal judges.”
Ralph Reed of Duluth, the head of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and former Georgia GOP chairman, said it is not enough for Romney simply to be the not-Obama candidate.
“At this point people are sold on the fact that Obama is an unacceptable alternative for them -- that sale is done,” Reed said in an interview. “What Romney has to do is make the case for why he is a positive, proactive choice for them.”
He said Romney polls in the high 60s among evangelical Christians. John McCain won 73 percent of that vote in 2008, and George W. Bush won 79 percent in 2004.
“He needs to get into the 70s, but it’s early, he’s got a ways to go,” said Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition of America. “He’s got some work to do with this constituency, but he’s doing it.”
Many religious conservatives were skeptical of Romney during the primaries because of his shifting positions on abortion and other issues, as well as some unease with his Mormon faith.
Reed said Romney is helping assuage those concerns by repeating forcefully how he is on evangelicals’ side on their issues -- against abortion and gay marriage, supportive of Israel, among other things. Romney has appeared in person at several Faith and Freedom Coalition events.
The coalition's efforts go beyond the top of the ticket. Scott said the group is adding 1,000 members per week in Georgia, even though it is almost certain to go for Romney. Scott said the group will probably work to defeat Democratic U.S. Rep. John Barrow of Augusta in what is expected to be the most hotly contested congressional election in the state this year.
The goal of turning the Senate Republican and keeping the House in GOP hands was stressed by several speakers, including U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Roswell. One of the most conservative members of the House, Price addressed the frustrations some activists have with congressional Republicans -- urging them instead to focus their ire on Democrats.
“I know this is hard for conservatives -- embrace incrementalism,” Price said. “The left does it all the time. They get a little bit and they celebrate and they come back to fight another day. ... We want it all right now, and when we don’t get it all right now we get mad at the folks who are there.”
The solution, Price said, is to elect more Republicans. Speaking about his market-based replacement for the health care law, he said: “We look forward to passing that once you, me and everyone else across this country give us a Nov. 6 that will be historic.”
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