Conservatives fearful as election draws near

DALLAS (Reuters) - Out in the red U.S. heartland, conservatives are singing the blues.

With poll after poll showing Democrat Barack Obama widening his lead over Republican rival John McCain in the race to the November 4 presidential vote, conservatives are fretting.

But several who spoke with Reuters said such concerns are helping to galvanize the party's conservative Christian base in the so-called red states that are considered Republican strongholds.

"We have a sense of foreboding about what it looks like right now ... It certainly doesn't look good right now," said Barry Creamer, the host of a talk show on a conservative Christian radio station in Dallas.

"I get this sense from my callers. Some have a sense of resignation but prayerful hope for divine intervention. But most of them just have more passion because they want to intervene, they want to do something," he told Reuters.

Other hosts of talk radio -- a staple of U.S. conservative culture -- have tried to rally the troops.

"They're trying to depress you; they're trying to dispirit you; they're trying to make you think ... that the election is finished," talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh said this past week in reference to polls showing Obama with a commanding lead.

With the election more than two weeks away, a lot can happen and some conservatives say they are not giving up, even with polls suggesting Obama's fortune is rising with the sinking economy.

"I don't believe it's over until it's over," said Ron Osborne, a Southern Baptist pastor in a suburb north of Dallas. "I'm not completely sold on the idea of a McCain loss but there are indications it is heading that way."

McCain, a self-proclaimed "maverick," has not always toed the conservative line and has himself been the target of right-wing ire. But his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has inspired the party faithful.

OBAMA MOTIVATES

Obama also is a motivating factor for them.

"I believe it's catastrophic. Obama's leaning toward socialism and Marxism in many, many areas," said Sunny Turner, who heads an anti-abortion rights group in Tucson, Arizona.

For many conservatives, an Obama presidency combined with a Democratic Congress is a nightmare. They see guns being taken away, abortion rights expanding and taxes rising.

"There is a concern over an Obama presidency and the prospects of that further motivates people," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a Washington-based conservative lobby group with strong evangelical ties.

Obama, like his party, is a strong supporter of abortion rights. For many conservative Christians, abortion is murder and McCain and Palin are both strongly opposed to it.

"I think that under an Obama presidency, every safeguard of the unborn will go to the wayside under the guise of freedom of choice," Osborne said. He was referring to various state restrictions on abortion rights that currently exist.

Obama has pledged that if elected president he will sign into law the Freedom of Choice Act, which is seen overriding local abortion restrictions.

For both sides of America's divide the stakes are seen as high, because the next president will likely appoint at least one justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, whose nine members are currently almost evenly split along conservative and liberal lines.

This raises the prospects that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision granting women a constitutional right to an abortion could be struck down eventually -- or upheld again.

"Obama will certainly go after very like-minded people in appointing Supreme Court justices ... That is a frightening prospect (for conservatives)," Osborne said.

But some conservatives don't think Obama can pursue a "radical liberal" agenda on all fronts.

The National Rifle Association for example says Obama will take aim at gun ownership but some Republican-leaning gun owners say they have the courts and much else on their side.

One concern among social conservatives is that the issues that really motivate their ranks, such as abortion and gay marriage, have taken a back seat to the economy.

"Avoiding social issues is detrimental to the McCain campaign," Perkins said.

(Additional reporting by Matthew Bigg in Atlanta and Tim Gaynor in Phoenix, Editing by Bill Trott)