In Whom There Is No Salvation

The answer, of course, is obviously no. This is why it’s so noteworthy that someone like Mr. DeMoss — who literally wrote a book about moral approaches to life and business — came out early and strong on behalf of Gov. Romney. ~Nancy French, Evangelicals for Mitt

All right, so let’s reliably assume that Mr. DeMoss is on the up and up.  I have no reason right now to assume otherwise.  Did he happen to also to write the books How To Not Get Trapped By Wishful Thinking or How To Avoid Being Conned By Politicians Who Tell Me What I Want To Hear?  Until he has demonstrated similar insights in these areas, we might hold off on investing his support for Romney with too much significance. 

No one’s questioning Mr. DeMoss’ integrity–we’re questioning Romney’s!  Part of the criticism of Romney is that he is tricking people into supporting him by saying all the right things, so it hardly exonerates the con man to say that the honest mark is really honest.  To the extent that we’re questioning Mr. DeMoss at all, we’re questioning the soundness of his judgement as to whether Gov. Romney’s “evolution” is more than cynical expediency.  If Romney has a history of changing his positions to suit the political environment (which he has) and an apparently impressive ability to reinvent himself somewhat convincingly, a perfectly honest man could trust him and be completely wrong about the man. 

Gen. Zinni endorsed Bush in 2000 because of his relatively “realist” foreign policy positions, but I bet he’s wishing he could have that one back!  Remember: nolite confidere in principibus!