McCain Hopes to Convert Faithful

John McCain is the only presidential candidate who once was a pastor, having served as chaplain for fellow prisoners of war in Vietnam. On the campaign trail, however, McCain hardly plays the ministerial role. He swears. He tells the occasional ribald joke. And he rarely mentions God.

This last week, though, McCain’s South Carolina campaign at times took on the air of an old-fashioned revival as the Arizona senator made a last-ditch bid to reach out to fundamentalists, the largest single bloc of Republican voters in this Bible Belt state.

He visited a Baptist church Sunday, the type of stop he did not make during his campaign in New Hampshire. As the week progressed, a top supporter began telling audiences that McCain has been chosen by God to help lead the country. And he picked up a key endorsement from Gary Bauer, the former presidential candidate whose strong stand against abortion makes him a conservative Christian favorite.

“I haven’t had as much a line of communication between the Christian right and other portions of the Republican party as I have had with some others,” McCain said as he exulted over Bauer’s decision to support him.

Conservative Christians will play a key role in today’s Republican presidential primary. In past GOP contests, they have been the group most likely to show up at the polls. And though McCain’s success or failure will largely depend on turnout among independents and Democrats, most analysts agree he must attract between 30% to 40% of the core Republican vote to gain a victory.

With final polls showing Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the lead, albeit narrowly in most cases, McCain’s bid for support from Christian conservatives may prove a matter of too little, too late.

The gambit also runs the risk of damaging McCain’s efforts in upcoming primaries in more moderate states such as Michigan and California, political experts said.

“I don’t think it’s going to be very effective in South Carolina, and it may have been more effective for him to stay away from it for the other states,” said Bill Moore, a professor of political science at the College of Charleston.

But others praise McCain for his efforts to attract the evangelical vote, noting that while he has surrounded himself with religious conservatives, he has not himself made any strongly religious statements.

“He doesn’t need to win it all, he just has to make sure he gets a good enough portion of that vote,” said Brad Gomez, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina.

Bush long has targeted Christian conservatives as an essential element of his support. He gained accolades from evangelicals when he named Jesus Christ as the political philosopher or thinker who had most influenced him. He enjoys endorsements from most of the top leaders of the movement, and one of his top advisors is Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition.

Bush’s first appearance in South Carolina after his surprisingly lopsided loss to McCain in the Feb. 1 New Hampshire primary was at Bob Jones University, an ultraconservative college that forbids interracial dating. And in his stump speeches, he repeatedly touts his program to increase the flow of federal money to religious groups to pursue their charitable goals. In comparison, McCain’s outreach to Christian conservatives did not become obvious until his church visit Sunday and Bauer’s endorsement Wednesday.

Perhaps the bid’s most striking moments occurred late in the week during a spin through upstate South Carolina, the state’s most conservative area. Republican Rep. Lindsey O. Graham, whose House district encompasses the region and a popular figure for his prosecution role in President Clinton’s impeachment trial, began repeatedly painting McCain as a man chosen by God to suffer greatly, then redeem a society wounded by its leaders’ moral failings.

Referring to the prolonged torture McCain underwent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Graham said the candidate “has suffered like very few people who have ever suffered for their country.”

Graham added: “I believe that God has placed John McCain at the right spot at the right time in our history for a reason. . . . Those who have suffered a great deal sometimes have a great ability to heal.”

Later, at a rally at Furman University, Graham said of McCain: “You didn’t have enough money, and you didn’t have enough endorsements, and you shouldn’t have lived to begin with.

“You’re here because God wants you to be here. . . . God has given us a great chance to rise to America’s need.”

But not everyone buys that argument. At one of McCain’s rallies on Friday, Bill Rigsby, a 51-year-old Baptist, said he had paid close attention to the two candidates and had decided to vote for Bush on moral issues.

He said he was worried that McCain had surrounded himself with too many moderate Republicans, such as former Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.), who in a quote gaining wide circulation in South Carolina once attacked some Christian conservatives as “bigots.”

“I see the things Gov. Bush says and stands for as closer to me on moral grounds,” Rigsby said. “I like the more conservative stance that Gov. Bush has.”