In a country where millions are uninsured, the level of poverty is on the rise, our kids are in Iraq in the middle of a civil war, the economy is taking a nosedive, our military is being privatized, the nut in the White House wants to bomb Iran, our veterans don’t receive the care they need, we hold people without ever charging them, we torture, our constitutional rights are being striped away from us……. and all these assholes can worry about is abortions.

Evangelical voters gathered here yesterday to weigh their political options even as one of their champions, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, officially withdrew from the 2008 presidential contest, robbing many of their first choice in the Republican nominating battle.

The 2,000 activists attending the Values Voter Summit listened to the candidates, some prayed for guidance, and many expressed deep discomfort with the Republican Party’s two front-runners: former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Romney presented himself as the antiabortion, pro-family, pro-religion contender whom Christian conservatives are seeking.

“I’ll oppose taxpayer funding of abortion, oppose partial-birth abortion. I’ll oppose abortion in military clinics. I’ll work to ban embryonic cloning,” Romney promised.

Romney only briefly mentioned his Mormon faith, a source of concern among some Christian groups, saying, “I understand that some people think that they couldn’t support someone of my faith,” then joking that they must be thinking of Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who is also a Mormon.

Giuliani is scheduled to face the group this morning with a message that emphasizes areas where he agrees with social conservatives, such as national security, taxes and the economy.

More at the Washington Post