Land’s Praise and Prophecies

ICYMI:

Did anyone notice how many enthusiastic quotes there are all over the place today from Richard Land — president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission — about Mitt Romney’s speech yesterday?

Land said Romney had done a “magnificent job.” He also wrote on Beliefnet this week that he has encouraged Romney to give the speech because he thought it was more important to the nation than it even was to Romney.

This is the same Richard Land who told David Brody, of Christian Broadcast Network, back in July that the nomination was “Fred’s to lose.” Yep, that would be Fred Thompson, the back-of-the-pack presidential candidate.

“My assessment is that at this moment in time it is Fred Thompson’s race to lose. It may be a convergence of the right man, in the right place and at the right time. I have never seen anything like this grassroots swell for Thompson. I’m not speaking for Southern Baptists but I do believe I have my hand on the pulse of Southern Baptists and I think I know where the consensus is,” said Land.

He added of Thompson: “He has an ability to connect with people. He comes from small town America where he can appeal to NASCAR dads, security moms, and Reagan Democrats.”

Just worth noting, Fred.

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Is Fred toast with the Christian conservative crowd? Does it matter? Did Romney hit it out of the park with his speech, and if so will it help? Write to me at askab@digital-release.thehill.com and join my weekly video Q&A.