Anti-Obama Evangelical Writes Pro-Obama Book

Stephen Mansfield expects to cast his ballot against Barack Obama in November. But that hasn’t stopped him from writing an admiring book about the candidate's religious profile—The Faith of Barack Obama—which argues that the candidate may well steal young evangelical voters away from John McCain. McCain is “clumsy when it comes to religion,” Mansfield tells Politico, in stark contrast to Obama’s “fluency” in the language of Christianity.

Mansfield says he can't vote for Obama because the senator is pro-choice, but he doesn't think that's a stumbling block for everyone in the Christian right. “Young Evangelicals are saying, ‘look, I'm pro-life but I'm looking at a guy who's first of all black—and they love that; two, who's a Christian; and three who believes faith should bear on public policy,” Mansfield says. His The Faith of George W. Bush spent 15 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in 2004. (More Barack Obama stories.)