Political Candidates and Moral Character

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We have seen in recent weeks the effect that alleged moral deficiencies can have on a political candidate's campaign with the suspension of Herman Cain's run for President. As much as the campaign attempted to keep people out of the bedroom, they couldn't do it. Now whether Cain is even guilty of the indiscretions he's accused of, only he and God knows. With the demise of Cain's campaign, Newt Gingrich's campaign took over the lead, which is rather odd.

This is odd because Gingrich is no saint at all. He's had multiple wives, one of whom was his mistress while he was married to another. Now perhaps it may be that Gingrich is more open about his past than other candidates are. At least he acknowledges his past indiscretions where as voters saw a hypocrisy in Cain, while being hypocritical themselves. And yet, does Gingrich have moral character?

There seems to be this line from candidates that personal lives should be kept separate from the public arena. I disagree. Moral character matters when it comes to who we elect to office. Even President Obama seems to have a decent enough moral character despite all the policies I disagree with him on. President Clinton should have resigned from office, but I'll let that ride on his conscience. That being said, there are only a couple of candidates left that seem to have good upstanding moral character, meaning there's no red flags: Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. 

Both are extremely pro-life (Paul being a former OB/GYN, and Santorum taking care of his sick infant when the doctors have given up hope). People talk about Romney's or Gingrich's economic policies, yet both involve spending even more money. Need I even go into Romney's flip-flopping on issues when it becomes expedient to do so? For me, who I vote for is a matter of principle and moral character. Romney is a Mormon and many people say, so what?. If one looks at the doctrine of the Mormon church, you will find many things that would be shocking to many Americans. Mormonism is America's Islam.

I say all that to say that I do not vote on a candidate because I think they have the best chance of winning. My conscience (and the Holy Spirit) will not allow me to do so. I vote on the candidate that I feel has a good moral character and has policies that best reflect mine. If I have to write in a candidate, then I will. Some years ago, I voted for a Democrat against the Republican Lindsay Graham. I told someone that and you'd have thought I'd just committed and unpardonable sin. The fact of the matter was that the Democrat running was more conservative than most of the Republicans in Congress already. We cannot and should not vote along party lines. This is partly what has gotten us in this mess in the first place. We, the people, do not vote the way we should.

As we go into this voting season to decide whether or not we keep President Obama in office, let us remember that moral character does matter, regardless of whatever policies the candidate is espousing. There are some candidates that have held to their policies for decades such as Paul and Santorum. There are others who flip-flop when it's expedient to do so such as Romney. Then there are others who just can't seem to be faithful to their wives such as Gingrich. The latter is leading in the polls unfortunately. Jesus isn't a political party member, so why should we.

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• Paul strength may help Romney in Iowa (seattletimes.nwsource.com)