Evangelical leaders are trying to strong arm John McCain into making Mike Huckabee his VP pick instead of Mitt Romney.

Prominent evangelical leaders are warning Sen. John McCain against picking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as his running mate, saying their troops will abandon the Republican ticket on Election Day if that happens.

“McCain and Romney would be like oil and water,” said evangelical novelist Tim LaHaye, who supported Mr. Huckabee. “We aren’t against Mormonism, but Romney is not a thoroughgoing evangelical and his flip-flopping on issues is understandable in a liberal state like Massachusetts, but our people won’t understand that.”

The Rev. Rob McCoy, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks, Calif., who speaks at evangelical events across the country, told The Washington Times, “I will vote for McCain unless he does one thing. You know what that is? If he puts Romney on the ticket as veep.

“It will alienate the entire evangelical community - 62 million self-professing evangelicals in this country, half of them registered to vote, are going to be deeply saddened,” Mr. McCoy added.

NO, he doesn’t believe everything just like they do. But you’d think that instead of throwing a hissy fit, they’d get behind a conservative, a man who worships the same God they do. He’s not Catholic, but I’d certainly support Romney. It all comes down to the evangelicals not believing Mormonism to be a ‘real’ religion.

How about we remove religion from this political discussion?