It is really important. As much as they downplayed the White Horse prophecy with Romney publicly, it came up again this time with Cruz. LDS are losing a lot of members, esp here in the US. Major losses - some count up to almost 250k active members (still on rolls but do not attend or pay tithing) per year. How does this fit with all of this and a Mormon in the white house?
Mormons need to be able to say it was a ‘true’ prophecy and thus ‘prove’ Smith was a prophet. Also, their theology is closely tied to political control of the US and ideally a one world government - this mostly stems from Joseph Smith running for POTUS in 1844. I am currently working on a book on the topic.
McMullin is new on the scene, and clean. He is running independent this time, and has a lot of support among the rank and file LDS, so it would be easy to have him run as a ‘non politician’ in 2020 if Trump loses. If Trump wins, not only will there be someone the LDS can’t control in the WH, but it will be harder to get someone in in 2024.
I was with you on your take of the Mormon tie in with American politics—up until your seeing McMullin as having, or being perceived as having, a shot in 2020.
How do you get to that thinking?