The benediction for the opening night of the Republican National Convention was given by Rodriguez, an Assemblies of God leader and the President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Council (NHCLC). Given that Rodriguez has been known for years as the "Hispanic Karl Rove of evangelicals" it was hardly shocking that Romney chose him for this symbolic task. This July Rodriguez declared that Romney had made a "180-degree turn" in his relationship with Hispanics after a primary in which he had staked out a position to the right of his key competitors. Of Puerto Rican descent, the 42-year old Rodriguez represents, as the Chicago Tribune put it in 2008, "a new generation of evangelical kingmakers on the political scene." Due to his status as a prominent Hispanic Evangelical and his advocacy for a "compassionate" approach to immigration, Rodriguez has developed a reputation as a progressive-friendly evangelical leader. This reputation, and the privileged access he has enjoyed to the White House during Barack Obama's first term, is surprising given his outspoken commitments to right-wing causes and organizations. More surprising, and