Evangelicals Consider Pushing Gingrich, Perry To Drop Out And Back Santorum

WASHINGTON -- A prominent evangelical Christian said Friday that if Rick Santorum continues to surge in the polls and does well in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Christian leaders are planning to ask Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry to drop out and get behind the former Pennsylvania senator.

"There is real concern that [Mitt] Romney will win without having to face one concentrated effort of a conservative challenger," Richard Land, one of the most well-known Southern Baptist leaders in the nation, told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell.

"What I hear conservatives saying is we need to keep talking about this and we need to let Gingrich and Santorum and Perry continue to make their case, but at some point, earlier rather than later, we need to try to unite all of the social conservative forces around one candidate and have this great debate that so many people want to see between Romney and the non-Romney," said Land, whose official title is president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

"Santorum has to do the convincing. He did a lot of convincing in Iowa," Land said. "He's surging. The question is what's going to happen in New Hampshire and then what's going to happen in South Carolina."

"If in South Carolina Santorum outperforms Gingrich and outperforms Perry, then I would think that social conservative leaders could make the case, 'You know, Mr. Gingrich, you've said that Mr. Santorum is a good friend of yours. You have similar views and you've been colleagues for many years. He is running better than you are. How about joining forces with him in Florida?'" Land said. "And then saying the same thing to Perry."

"What I've heard over and over is we don't want to make the same mistake this time that we did with Huckabee in 2008. People didn't rally around Huckabee as the social conservative alternative because they didn't think he could win, until it was too late and McCain had the nomination sewn up," Land said.

Politico's Jonathan Martin reported earlier this week that evangelical leaders are holding a meeting in Texas next week to discuss how to prevent Santorum, former House Speaker Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Texas Gov. Perry from splitting the conservative vote and handing the nomination to Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.

Land declined to comment on whether he is attending such a meeting.

Watch the Land interview here:

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Comments

[Amock]

10:19 PM on 01/10/2012

Evangelical Christian Vs. Islamic Iman. Appear to be one in the same except the Iman appears to have more rocks - for now!

[psychomom]

03:09 PM on 01/09/2012

If churches are going to influence elections, then they need to be taxed.

[ohohyeah]

02:51 PM on 01/09/2012

Parts of Texas are getting 5 --even 6 - inches of rain. Perry quit praying?

The Texas drought and heat wave was one of two natural disasters in 2011 that caused more than 10 billion in damages. Science anyone? Getting a little warmer is it?

Nah. Drill, baby, drill.

[MMiddleDavid]

01:44 PM on 01/09/2012

Wasn't it Santorum who in the debate the other night explained one of the reason we should fear Iran: They are a Theocracy...?

[dre31]

11:53 AM on 01/09/2012

Rick Santorum should just do the world a favor and have Gingrich and Perry also hold a rifle behind him. That would be good and pull the trigger.

[dre31]

11:52 AM on 01/09/2012

Yeah they should encourage them to get behind Rick with a rope tied in a knott, put it around his neck and pull it and throw it in the ceiling and hang.

[Southernthinker]

11:35 AM on 01/09/2012

Great idea, Southern Baptist types calling shots for the GOP; that's an ante-bellum snapshot. Look Away ~Look Away ~ Dixieland.

[shirley thomas]

03:25 PM on 01/09/2012

f&f lol glad to know there are some thinkers in the south.

[montanason]

05:22 PM on 01/08/2012

They'll wait for the final word from God though as delivered
by Pat Robertson

[maria52]

05:43 PM on 01/08/2012

LOL

[shirley thomas]

03:27 PM on 01/09/2012

it already has been and the word is obama. that's why he ain't saying

[WheelsOnFire]

05:15 PM on 01/08/2012

Rick Santorum's Presidential Oath of Office:

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States -- solely for my select friends of Jesus -- and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend only the parts of the Constitution of the United States that I and my master, Pope Benedict XVI, like. As for the rest of the Constitution, hand me a pair of scissors.

[Saje3d]

03:48 AM on 01/08/2012

Well, that'll cinch up the religious freak vote. Not likely to capture a lot of swing voters.

[Wesley Holbrook]

03:47 AM on 01/08/2012

Yeah, just so they can legislate morality...yet they hardly walk the walk. Want to know who made the most class warfare statement of all time??? Hint: He was a working class socialist and thee perfect idealist of all time...Ready??? Then Jesus said unto his disciples, "Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 19:23. It was true in His day as it is even more so in ours. And advocating the use of torture, are you kidding? He said to turn the other cheek...The point is, leave religion out of politics, if not, put away your haloes, and lift up Jesus and His teachings, not your own...

[WheelsOnFire]

05:17 PM on 01/08/2012

They want to legislate their narrow view of what they consider moral -- forgetting that the Constitution is written far more broadly.

[Acadia27]

05:51 PM on 01/08/2012

And we all know you can't legislate morality. If you outlaw what Santorum wants to outlaw, it will just happen behind closed doors, in back alleys, in the illegal importation of contraception, and in the churches that choose to bless a marriage no matter who is marrying whom. And in some instances, more women will die.

[l78lancer]

02:09 AM on 01/08/2012

They may have the right logic but the wrong cantidate. All of the Romney alternatives are too far right. The cantidate they should be looking at (Huntsman) isn't even on the radar. Santorum has the spunk, but he isn't smart enough, accomplished enough, poised enough, to take on Mitt to the very end.

But this whole exercise points to an even deeper identity crisis of the GOP. While the religious/social values people may want to back Santorum, business and industry appears to want Romney. Meanwhile, the old guard of the republicans - the traditional conservatives - want neither. Add to that mix the exotic and bizarre libertarian wing and the self-interested Tea Party Movement, and GOP has a ball of confusion.

The question is who - or what - is the republican party?

[WheelsOnFire]

05:18 PM on 01/08/2012

You've just described a Romney-Santorum ticket.

And I've just lost my lunch.

[l78lancer]

05:46 PM on 01/08/2012

Sorry about that, but unfortunately there may be some truth to it. Wish there was some way to buy you lunch when "O" wins in 2012 to make it up to you.

[yomero]

01:28 AM on 01/08/2012

If i put them in my blender ,i will get an a** preacher.... in the closet.

[Dick Stone]

12:41 AM on 01/08/2012

I thought I was an evangelical, but perhaps I am not in alignment with these people calling themselves evangelicals, because I am not endorsing Santorum, he is far too unlikable to win a general election. Endorsing someone that has no chance of winning is a fast way to lose. Hunstman and Perry should have already dropped out after their dismal performance in Iowa, they are so self involved that they do not care enough about the country to even get out of the way.

[Bertrand T Russell]

12:32 AM on 01/08/2012

Too bad..... we can't just push them all off a cliff!

[CogentThought]

12:38 AM on 01/08/2012

That would be bad for the environment. Littering.

[Christopher D Lines]

04:27 AM on 01/08/2012

Littering. Pushing them off the cliff or discarding them would be more akin to the pollution of the keystonexl pipeline. LOL