Michele asks:

How are the Republicans not capitalizing on the “muscle” of the “Christian Right old guard?” How can they get their support when no one is willing to offer it yet?

The very fact that the Christian Right old guard–and rank and file evangelicals, for that matter–have not yet coalesced around one Republican candidate suggests that unlike Bush in 2000 and 2004, there’s not a candidate who has wide appeal to the GOP’s evangelical base. The movement is not claiming that it’s overwhelmed by a surplus of wonderful candidates (which is how many rank-and-file Democrats feel) but heart sore over so many flawed contenders, i.e. Rudy the social liberal, Mitt the flip-flopping Mormon, Fred the not-Christian-enough bore, John the Episcopal Baptist and campaign finance reformer, and Huck the penniless preacher.

So one way to look at the Christian Right’s failure to get behind a candidate is that it shows the movement is weakening. The way I see it, though, is that it might say more about the electoral weakness of the GOP field. Regardless of who seizes the nomination, that candidate’s weakness at the party base could make it a lot easier for a Democrat to take the White House next November.