Pacific Views

We knew someone could explain Dean's loss in Iowa.

But it wasn't until we visited our friends over at the religious-right news site, Crossroads, that we were able to get the real story. It seems that Gov. Dean's problem was his 'liberal stance on moral issues.'

"I think that Dean went in with a very liberal, very hard message [that was] anti-Bush, angry -- and that just did not seem to work in America's heartland," [Family Research Council president Tony] Perkins says. "I think what we're seeing is some of these extreme messages that the Democratic candidates are putting out there are being rejected. You see them -- even here in Iowa -- shifting more to [John] Kerry, who has been more moderate."

The FRC head points toward Dean's radical position on homosexuality as just one example of a rejection of liberal stances on issues of concern to families. "I think, in like manner, that we'll see that the extreme positions of almost all of the Democratic candidates on issues like partial-birth abortion ... are out-of-step with the vast majority of Americans as well on those issues," he says.

According to Perkins, liberals' cultural message will not sit well with the majority of the nation's voters -- and that Dean's defeat in Iowa proved that.

Given Dubya's endorsement tonight of a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriages, we bet the prez is really comfortable with that analysis.