One thing I have liked about Obama has been what I think is his good-faith effort to reach out to evangelicals. No, I do not agree with his Welfare State Equals the Gospels message, but neither do I much care for the Kill al-Qaeda for Christ I am hearing from the Republicans. And I do believe Obama has been sincere in his reaching out to religious conservatives, unlike John Kerry, who regarded evangelicals as aliens from another solar system.

However, it seems that the Democratic attack machine has been unleashed against Sarah Palin. For example, the other night on his show, Bill Maher (who definitely cannot be mistaken for a conservative Republican) made fun of Palin’s Downs Syndrome child and expressed disgust that Palin had five children. We have seen attacks from the Usual Suspects, and many of them have the “Christians are a bunch of nuts” theme.

On top of that, Emily’s List and other pro-abortion groups are going to push an ad blitz against Palin emphasizing her own beliefs about abortion.

My sense is that these attacks — and they will make the Swift Boat attacks look like political endorsements of Kerry, in my opinion — are going to have the effect of driving evangelicals (including the Obama-leaning young evangelicals) away from the Democrats. It is one thing to have differences, but once again we shall see the Democrats treating conservative Christians as though they had no right to exist.