Family Research Council director predicts "any Republican with a pulse" will defeat Obama in 2012

The race for the Republican Presidential nomination won't come down to Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, but any Republican nominee "with a pulse" will defeat President Obama in 2012, Tony Perkins, executive director of the Washington-based Family Research Council, said at a Sept. 27 Newsmaker.

"We have a good field of candidates now," for the Republican nomination, Perkins said. He rejected New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as a potential contender.

Perkins, who once served in the Louisiana legislature, said voters will choose a president who addresses "big government" issues such as health care, tax policies, terrorism and jobs.

"The right candidate will understand that big government doesn't just happen," Perkins said. "Big government and budget deficits are in part the natural outcome of government policies that foster a deficit of character."

Conservative Christians will play a decisive role in the election, Perkins said.

"The issues that mattered to evangelicals in 1992 are the same issues
that matter to them today," Perkins said. "Some analysts have suggested this means evangelicals are out of touch with the times and are stuck in the past. A more realistic interpretation is that evangelicals' perspectives have remained stable because they are based on a world view that does not shift with the ebb and flow of cultural preferences and fads."

The Family Research Council, a conservative, Christian organization, was founded in 1981 by the Rev. James Dobson. Its political arm FRC Action will sponsor a "Value Voters Summit" and straw poll from Oct. 5 to 9 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington. Every Republican candidate but former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is scheduled to attend.

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Robert Webb [email protected]