The values voters straw poll results probably reflect what’s going on in the conservative Evangelical community in general. There are some who believe that the abortion issue is so important that it trumps all other issues to such an extent that they could never vote against principle and elect a pro-choice candidate. They want to elect a president who is just as passionate about the issue as they are and Mike Huckabee is that candidate. They know that Huckabee will be the advocate for life in the same way that Bush has been.

In contrast I think the Christian leadership is looking at this with the ends in mind. What candidate is able to beat Clinton and how can they avoid Giuliani getting the Republican nomination. If either of these candidates wins the presidency, it will set the pro-life movement back years and will weaken the pro-life position in the party. They want to pick the strongest pro-life, pro-marriage amendment candidate they can find but they don’t think that’s Huckabee because he doesn’t have the money or infrastructure in place the way Romney does. and he isn’t a fiscal conservative.
Is this a divide? No, I think it reflects the fact that no one candidate satisfies all our needs and so the support is scattered among all the candidates. I don’t think that even the Christian leaders can decide among themselves who to coalesce behind. And the fact that the results of the straw poll are in dispute (Romney’s supporters believe that he won because he was focused on on-line voting) just proves that there really is no Christian conservative candidate to rally the troops behind.