While Dobson characterized Trump at the time as a "baby Christian," he seemed more circumspect about the New York real estate mogul's newfound faith in a statement released Monday to the Christian publication Charisma News. "Only the Lord knows the condition of a person's heart. I can only tell you what I've heard," Dobson said. "First, Trump appears to be tender to things of the Spirit. I also hear that Paula White has known Trump for years and that she personally led him to Christ."
"I think it gives all pro-life leaders pause," Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Iowa evangelical, told the Daily Beast on Tuesday, when the silence was a mere 26 hours old. "I think it gives all people that are looking for life as their issue, who are looking to support a presidential candidate -- it gives them an unnecessary pause." "Unnecessary" indeed. Fervent anti-abortion voters see Hillary Clinton as a woman who openly celebrates the killing of children. It should not be hard for a Republican -- even one who once claimed to be "very pro-choice" -- to make himself look like the friendlier option for pro-lifers than the candidate endorsed by Planned Parenthood. And it would be foolish for Trump to underestimate the transcendent importance of the issue to his base. A 2012 poll found that 28 percent of Republican voters said they could not vote for a presidential candidate who did not agree with them on abortion. So a quick tweet condemning Monday's Supreme Court decision should be a no-brainer for a candidate hoping to shore up support among religious conservatives. Instead, the campaign has whiffed.