The Disappearing God Gap Religion in the 2008 Presidential Election [Hardcover]

After the reelection of George W. Bush in 2004, the God Gap became a hotly debated political issue. Religious voters were seen as the key to Bush's victory, and Democrats began scrambling to reach out to them. Four years later, however, with the economy in a tailspin on election day, religion barely seemed to register on people's radar screens. In this book, a team of well-regarded scholars digs deeper to examine the role religion played in the 2008 campaign. They take a long view, placing the election in historical context and looking at the campaign as a whole, from the primaries through all the way through election day. At the heart of their analysis is data gleaned from a national survey conducted by the authors, in which voters were interviewed in the spring of 2008 and then re-interviewed after the election.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1
Introduction

Chapter 2
Religion and Presidential Campaigns in Perspective

Chapter 3
Religion and the Political Landscape in 2008

Chapter 4
Religion and the 2008 Presidential Primaries

Chapter 5
Religion and the Summer Interlude

Chapter 6
Religion and the Fall Campaign

Chapter 7
Religion and Election Day: Voter Mobilization in 2008

Chapter 8
Religion and Election Day: Voting Patterns

Chapter 9
The God Gap Revisited

Tables
References
Index

A valuable addition to our understanding of religion's role in American politics broadly, not just the 2008 presidential election. --Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

This fine new book offers a thorough and timely analysis of the role of religion in the 2008 presidential election. It also contextualizes religion's role in this history-making election, illustrating in many ways that the more things change, the more they truly do stay the same: religious traditionalists remained solidly Republican despite increased efforts on the part of the DelC.