Down in the polls, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is making a bid for Iowa’s evangelical Christian voters, who form a key voting segment but reportedly have yet to coalesce around a single candidate.
Perry is touting his Christian faith and assailing what he calls “Obama war on religion” in a new ad. “There’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school,” Perry says.
Perry talked with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about his ad. In the CNN interview Perry explains that we should have “we’re supposed to have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.”
Perry’s ad is the most overtly Christian-oriented ad by a presidential candidate that I can recall since Mike Huckabee aired a spot touting himself as a “Christian leader” in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses in 2008. Huckabee, of course, emerged as the caucuses’ winner.
A self-professed “godless heathen” issued a video rejoinder to Perry.
UPDATE: The Associated Press looks at the competition between Perry and Newt Gingrich for evangelical voters’ allegiances.
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