On the November 28 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, CNN anchor John Roberts said of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee: "[H]e brings Christian conservatives in the door, values voters." As Media Matters for America has documented, CNN personalities have repeatedly linked “values” and religious faith to conservative voters or politicians. Recently, other media figures have used the term similarly. For instance, Politico congressional reporter Josephine Hearn suggested that a Huckabee win in Iowa would be “very damaging to Mitt Romney, because they're both going after values voters.” In addition, BBC Washington correspondent Katty Kay posited that “values voters” can “say, 'We can take [Rudy] Giuliani as our president because we know we've got a Supreme Court that is already very conservative.' ” Moreover, Roberts himself has previously asserted that Democrats are “perceived as a party of secular snobs" and described Romney as "pro-family."

On May 18, 2006, conservative columnist George F. Will criticized the media's use of the term “values voters” to refer to social conservatives in a Washington Post column titled "Who Isn't a Values Voter?" Will wrote that "[t]his phrase diminishes our understanding of politics. It also is arrogant on the part of social conservatives and insulting to everyone else because it implies that only social conservatives vote to advance their values and everyone else votes to ... well, it is unclear what they supposedly think they are doing with their ballots."

Roberts' remark about Huckabee came during a discussion of that evening's CNN/YouTube debate for Republican presidential candidates.

From the November 28 edition of Anderson Cooper 360:

COOPER: Let's get some final thoughts on the debate from our panel: David Gergen, Bill Bennett, CNN's Campbell Brown, Jeffrey Toobin, Jamal Simmons. Joined by -- as well as by American Morning's John Roberts, who's just joining us.

John, you had a chance to try to talk to some of the candidates afterward. What did you take away?

ROBERTS: Well, I talked with Giuliani for a little while, probably for about five or six minutes after the debate. He really seemed to be in good spirits.

I think it's pretty clear that he handled the debate very well, and he was on very friendly territory here in Florida. This is one of the places where he is doing best of all of the early primary states, a place that he hopes can be a firewall for him. And it's a place that's much more in tune with his ideas and his policies than, say, an Iowa or a New Hampshire.

They don't so much take offense to the nuance in his positions on abortion and gun control, as some of these other states do, though he did seem to be in a bit of a sticky spot on a couple of occasions when he was asked about gun control, trying to lay out his position here.

And it seems that he has shifted somewhat away from this idea of licensing guns that he was promoting when he was mayor, Anderson. So perhaps that's a real recognition that he knows the number of people here who are gun owners in Florida, and he has to temper his ideas just a little bit on that front.

But all in all, Giuliani thought it was a good night. I also talked with Mike Huckabee, who happened to be here with Chuck Norris, who's doing some campaigning for him as they try to push ahead in Iowa. And I can really see Huckabee perhaps setting up as a running mate to Rudy Giuliani. He brings to the table some things that Rudy Giuliani does not have. And that's really important for a running mate. What can the running mate do to augment your campaign?

With Huckabee, he brings Christian conservatives in the door, values voters, and that's something that Giuliani still has some problem with. So I wouldn't be surprised if Giuliani did become the nominee, that there's a good chance he could pick Mike Huckabee to be his running mate.

Anne C. Smith is an intern at Media Matters for America.