Kalb report participates weigh role of morals in election
A group of journalists at Monday night's Kalb Report at the National Press Club debated whether moral values were the deciding factor in the 2004 election.
The discussion, hosted by moderator Marvin Kalb, featured CNN political analyst Jeff Greenfield, The New York Times' Adam Nagourney, U.S. News & World Report senior writer Michael Barone and Rachel Zoll, an Associated Press religion writer. Republican pollster David Winston and Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg also took part in the debate, which was the last Kalb Report of 2004. The Kalb Report, sponsored by GW and Harvard University, has hosted dozens of discussions with prominent reporters and media industry executives.
On Monday, the conversation focused intensively on values and religion in politics and the media. Kalb framed the debate by saying that 22 percent of voters polled thought moral values were the most important issue of the election. A number of pundits credited President Bush's victory over Democratic challenger John Kerry to Americans casting ballots based on a perception that Bush had better moral values.
"The electorate has been cleaved along moral lines and lines of religion, whether the issue was abortion or the issue of this year, Iraq," Barone said.
He added that values played an extremely important role on Nov. 2, and forced an unexpected electoral shift from economic and foreign policy issues.
But other panelists argued that the significance of morals was not a prominent as some media and political outlets are proclaiming.
"Most of the analysis shows that it's not that different from the exit polls of the L.A. Times in other years," Greenberg said.
Nagourney said that the term "moral values" was too vague to be accurately judged in a poll.
"It depends what you mean by moral values," he said. "It might have meant abortion, it might have meant gay marriage, it might have meant Janet Jackson and the Super Bowl and ... whatever you call it."
The discussion, hosted by moderator Marvin Kalb, featured CNN political analyst Jeff Greenfield, The New York Times' Adam Nagourney, U.S. News & World Report senior writer Michael Barone and Rachel Zoll, an Associated Press religion writer. Republican pollster David Winston and Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg also took part in the debate, which was the last Kalb Report of 2004. The Kalb Report, sponsored by GW and Harvard University, has hosted dozens of discussions with prominent reporters and media industry executives.
On Monday, the conversation focused intensively on values and religion in politics and the media. Kalb framed the debate by saying that 22 percent of voters polled thought moral values were the most important issue of the election. A number of pundits credited President Bush's victory over Democratic challenger John Kerry to Americans casting ballots based on a perception that Bush had better moral values.
"The electorate has been cleaved along moral lines and lines of religion, whether the issue was abortion or the issue of this year, Iraq," Barone said.
He added that values played an extremely important role on Nov. 2, and forced an unexpected electoral shift from economic and foreign policy issues.
But other panelists argued that the significance of morals was not a prominent as some media and political outlets are proclaiming.
"Most of the analysis shows that it's not that different from the exit polls of the L.A. Times in other years," Greenberg said.
Nagourney said that the term "moral values" was too vague to be accurately judged in a poll.
"It depends what you mean by moral values," he said. "It might have meant abortion, it might have meant gay marriage, it might have meant Janet Jackson and the Super Bowl and ... whatever you call it."
