Robert D. Hurt

Robert D. Hurt is the director of a conservative, traditionalist Roman Catholic organization which attempted to draft Mel Gibson as a write-in candidate in the 2004 presidential election. In August 2004, Hurt published a total of 30,000,000 bulletins stating his mission to launch the campaign. According to Hurt, there was "for no practical purposes any real difference in the stated objectives of" George W. Bush and John Kerry the two prime candidates for the presidency in 2004. Hurt also stated that if Ronald Reagan was of Hollywood fame and was elected to that office, so could Mel Gibson. Gibson's Catholic ethics were exposed extensively by the media in February 2004, when he released The Passion of the Christ, a film which angered many Jews for its portrayal of that ethnic group in 1st century Jerusalem. Both Hurt and Gibson opposed abortion and gay marriage. Furthermore, Gibson also took the following conservative standpoints during the campaign:

*the American government encouraging exportation of jobs
*taking greater military action in foreign affairs
*increasing governmental control over various aspects of life
*the rights of the majority taking precedence over self rights proclaimed by the ACLU

Gibson attends a Traditional Latin Mass daily and has resisted what he considers the liberalism of Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles.

Much to the dismay of traditionalist Roman Catholics, the campaign proved a failure.