It’s an indirect compliment, to be sure, but Southern Baptist Convention Public Policy chief Richard Land’s comments in today’s Tennesseean certainly seem to favor Obama:

Of the two Democratic hopefuls, Land said that as a conservative Republican he’d rather see Clinton be nominated “because she’d be easier to beat.”
“But as an American,” he added, “I’d rather see Obama.”

A McCain versus Obama race would be about America’s future, Land said, while a Clinton-McCain battle would be about America’s past.
“God help us if it’s Hillary,” he said. “The pull of the Vietnam War hero running against a draft dodger’s wife would be irresistible. … The country doesn’t need that.”

Land’s comments echo those he made last week on Beliefnet’s Casting Stones blog.

9