Denver, Colorado, is known as the Mile High City. For John McCain and his campaign, they are probably feeling a mile high after learning what transpired in that city Tuesday night. It looks to be a key turning point for the McCain campaign.
Though Time Magazine broke the story, The Brody File had been aware of this story all day Wednesday. Basically, dozens of conservative and Evangelical leaders met in Denver and agreed to help get John McCain elected President of the United States. The Brody File has more details and some analysis below.
There were 83 state and national leaders in the room from all over the country. They included heavyweights Phyllis Schlafly, Tim and Beverly LaHaye, Phil Burress, Mat Staver and representatives from Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America and the American Family Association. There were loads more but you get the idea.
David Barton, President of the conservative WallBuilders group was there too. I spoke with him about the meeting and he tells me roughly 75 of the 83 were on board for McCain at the end of the meeting.
"I would say it was a very very significant meeting. ... I would say that the firepower assembled in that room represents a large portion of the conservative and the Evangelical constituency. I would say that the message was very clear that they will strongly support McCain."
The meeting started out with an agreement by everyone in the room on the 10 core values they believe are crucial to the pro-family movement. After agreeing on the values, they then agreed that John McCain best represents those values: More Barton:
"There's some disagreement with McCain/Feingold (campaign finance reform) and McCain/Kennedy (comprehensive immigrations reform) but that pales behind the values, and so the major consensus was when you look at the core values, there's no trouble with the guy."
So why is there a more positive climate change (excuse the pun) when it comes to McCain now? Two reasons. First off, these pro-family groups believe Barack Obama is a threat to their pro-family values. But secondly, McCain has done a great job in private meetings with some conservative religious leaders of calming the fears they may have about him. Barton again:
"They went into those meetings very hostile I would say and they had some lengthy meetings and really hit McCain hard on some stuff and he answered them point blank in such a way that they came out just completely flipped over in the sense that, 'Wow, the concerns that we had are not there.'"
So here's the bottom line: We are seeing a shift now in Evangelical circles because there is a realization that while McCain might not be the "pure candidate," he's still the closest thing they have to representing their core values. They don't want Barack Obama picking Supreme Court judges. That's why the judges issue is very important to this group and they believe McCain will be there on judges. They plan to let their supporters know about it. The "base" may be mobilizing very soon. Get ready.
This meeting has all the makings of providing a significant impact to John McCain come November.