It’s Darwin’s Birthday and a creationist candidate declares he will fight on for his party’s nomination

Transcript of today's show:

Last year at this time, we reported on Evolution Sunday -- an annual event that coincides with Darwin’s birthday that celebrates the compatibility of Evolution with Christianity. This year on Darwin‘s Birthday the presidential primaries are in full swing, and despite John McCain’s impressive delegate lead, Mike Huckabee is not giving up his fight to become the first confirmed Christian Creationist President.

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MSNBC.com reporting on the McCain - Huckabee race:

Huckabee told reporters in Little Rock, Ark., that his close showing in Virginia proved that “there’s still a real sense in the Republican Party of a desire to have a choice.”

“We feel like if we’d had a few more days, maybe we could have closed the gap all the way,” he said.

Huckabee said he was the only “solid conservative, absolutely pro-life candidate” still in the race, and exit interviews in Virginia suggested that his message resonated. Huckabee got strong support from self-described conservatives, who made up nearly 7 in 10 voters in the Republican primary. Huckabee won half their votes.

In a surprising showing of weakness for McCain, independents, a group he has dominated, were about evenly divided. People calling themselves loyal Republicans, who have previously given McCain a slight edge, were also split down the middle.

White born-again and evangelical Christians, the keystone of Huckabee’s support all year, were favoring him by more than a 2-to-1 ration. McCain led heavily among the 6 in 10 Virginia voters who were not white born-again and evangelicals. Polls taken last week showed McCain with a double-digit lead over Huckabee, a Baptist minister, but Huckabee drew strong support in rural western Virginia, the state’s Bible belt. He appealed to Christian conservatives in Virginia, where he had the endorsement of Jerry Falwell Jr., the namesake son of the late television evangelist.
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