CNN is reporting that Mitt Romney will give the commencement address at Pat Robertson’s Regent University, just as John McCain, one of Romney’s chief rivals for the 2008 Republican nomination, delivered the commencement address at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University last May.
First of all, how do all these guys get their own universities? Second, it’s incredible how the religious right has these candidates on a leash. McCain’s speech was part of a larger campaign to embrace the religious right, including forsaking his previously moderate views on Roe v. Wade; Romney’s speech is part of a coordinated effort to fight his own moderate past and convince the right he is a true conservative, an effort that has included pulling a complete 180 on gay rights.
This is why I think Chuck Hagel has a chance to secure the Republican nomination: he is a conservative through and through with no weaknesses in his social record, and has bucked the party line on just two topics, the Iraq War and President Bush. He opposes both vehemently. Isn’t that exactly what the polls indicate conservative voters want right now? The Republican nomination may end up depending on how well Chuck Hagel can make all of this apparent to the vast majority of American voters who have little idea who he is.