The Brody File has learned that the Obama campaign held a conference call this morning with about 30 Hispanic Evangelical pastors. Immigration, faith and abortion were all part of the discussion. The call lasted about 30 minutes starting with an opening prayer and then closing in prayer as well. These calls will now start taking place every other week.
Obama’s faith based team was on the call along with the campaign’s Latino Vote Director. As for the groups represented, the National Hispanic Christian leadership Conference was on the call along with pastors from New York, Florida, Colorado, Texas, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and DC / Baltimore.
It’s important to note here that not everybody on the call has endorsed Obama. They have questions for the campaign. Someone who participated in the meeting tells me that "Immigration was huge, and people were upset with McCain's inconsistency. Several folks cited that they were heretofore conservative Republicans but because Barack is a "believer" and because of immigration, they are on board."
I can also tell you that abortion did come up, especially partial birth abortion and there was defintely a concern there. This si something the Obama campaign is going to have to address. Obama's position is that he supports a ban as long as there is a health exception for the mother.
Obama’s campaign has had similar conference calls like this with African-American pastors. Basically, you have Obama being lifted up in prayer throughout the country by some pastors across the country. This is pretty remarkable coming from the Democratic candidate for President. Obama is blazing new ground. He’s reaching out not just to progressive pastors but to conservative Evangelical pastors as well. In 2004, John Kerry used to show up in black churches so he could get a good turnout among the African American community. It was political. With Obama it isn’t so much political as it is a heartfelt desire to merge religion and politics. And the fact that he can "bond" with Hispanic leaders is a good thing for a campaign that needs to show strength among Latinos.