Posted on 02/02/2011 12:53:42 PM PST by T Minus Four
Now that it's official Jon Huntsman is resigning the U.S. ambassadorship to China effective April 30 (presumably to make a run for the White House), the question du jour becomes whether a candidate's Mormon faith precludes a viable candidacy for the U.S. presidency.
Mounting evidence is increasingly pointing to a brave new world where the perceived biases that potentially derailed Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign are dissolving and, lo and behold, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could realistically be elected president of the United States in 2012.
The Washington Post currently has two articles up examining the issue a poll-based analysis and an op-ed piece.The article relying on polling culls its data from the 2008 election cycle, when the percentage of respondents saying they'd be less likely to vote for a Mormon presidential candidate dropped over a one-year period from 36 percent to 21. The opinion piece asks whether 2012 could be the Year of the Mormons
Over at Christianity Today, Tobin Grant examines which candidate Evangelicals like now that Huntsman is apparently entering the fray and of course Mitt Romney is a big part of that discussion. An interesting snip:
"In an open memo to 'conservative and evangelical leaders,' Mark DeMoss, of the Christian public relations firm The DeMoss Group, said that all of the potential candidates for the Republican nomination pass the traditional litmus tests on abortion and marriage. DeMoss offered a new litmust test: 'A candidate for president of the United States should be capable of becoming president, and then competent to be the president.' For DeMoss, the candidate that passes that test is Mitt Romney."
Finally, as we mentioned last week, Time Magazine recently rolled out a big profile on Mitt that makes almost no mention of his LDS affiliation.
Add it all up, and what do you have? While no one knows how Huntsman and Romney will fare in the Republican presidential primaries, it's now looking more and more like their Mormon affiliation won't amount to a de facto disqualification.
I agree. And the democrats would swoon all over them.
I hit the jackpot on the Mormon Times website :-) And it is freaking cold!!!
It was below zero down here this morning and it is still only 18 degrees. I thought I lived in southern Utah.
Delacoert sized up that report last year
From Delacoert as follows:
From the article: Add it all up, and what do you have? While no one knows how Huntsman and Romney will fare in the Republican presidential primaries, it's now looking more and more like their Mormon affiliation won't amount to a de facto disqualification.
Journalist Jamshid Ghazi Askar writing for this Mormon church-owned newspaper apparently doesn't know democracy works in this country -- even his version of "de facto" democracy. No Mormon gets "disqualified" because he's Mormon. (Otherwise, we wouldn't have Harry Reid in the Senate now, would we?)
Point 1- RELIGION: Religion IS NOT a qualification or disqualification for public office; but it's certainly one quality of voter discernment among many others...namely, voting record, present position statements & rampant inconsistency of past position statements, social issues' stances, character, viability, scandal-free past, etc.
POINT 2 ELIGIBILITY: Newsflash!! Every person on the ballot, & even most write-in candidates, have proper "qualifications" to not be excluded from office consideration (based upon religious grounds). Of course, millions of us have the "qualifications" to be considered a potential POTUS & shouldn't be excluded outright from a ballot because of the religion we hold! Nobody has a "Religious Ineligibility" tattoo on their forehead!
POINT 3- BOTTOM LINE: Too many people confuse disqualifications and "qualifications" (the latter language within the Constitution) with "qualities." (language thats NOT in the Constitution). I focus on what voters base their votes on in the "real world": Qualities
Otherwise, whos telling voters how they are to weigh--or not weigh--the "qualities" of a candidate?
Whos claiming that we voters MUST 100% disregard character, beliefs, other-dimensionly commitments, and spiritual discernment in weighing candidates?
"Qualifications" have to do with what gets a man on a ballot.
"Qualities" has to do with who gets elected.
Fact is...I voted for Romney over McCain in the primary...because I thought he would have been some better.
He will go the way of Bennett in the next election...and I think he knows it.
The guy is just another poster boy for "TERM LIMITS".
He can't. He won't.
IF...the RNC pushes Mitt Romney on us...there will be revolt in the Republican Party.
I will never vote for a Mormon for public office...ever. I know too much.
And anyone who is considering it needs to read THIS books first...
http://whensaltlakecitycalls.wordpress.com/
Supposed to be 9 below tonight....with a high of 12 tomorrow.
Cold!
Be warm my FRiend!!
Wow! I would think you would have dreamy warm algore weather in your neck of the woods.
The liberal wife of our development director is a big ‘Climate Change’ nut. I just sent her an email asking her to turn on the global warming turbines and point it our way.
I mean I'm burning horrible damned fossil fuel to heat my house...and what's worse I'm burning wood to heat my den!!!
AGAGHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Has all the flooding turned to ice?
I love it when during this cold weather our bill stays constant.
I show you this because this is where we have sunrise services on Sunday mornings.
We didn’t have any flooding over here but the snow from Christmas week still hasn’t fully melted.
Ah, nuts, not in E-book format yet. I doubt I’ll find it in the DI but you never know :-)
I will send pictures of where I live one day. It's extremely pretty too...but in a different way.
GeoThermal is a good system...IMO.
Be warm!!
Well cool, now yuo can burn tires just for fun :-)
I’ve heard rumors there is a new edition coming out for this election cycle. It is worth getting.
Oddly enough, it’s not in the local county library :-)
You live too close to Hooper. We used to burn tires out where the big ponds would freeze over as we skated all night long when I was a kid. During the winter of 1947 we had four-five feet of snow in Hooper.
Also there was a huge pond up near Smith and Edwards where we would do the same after we moved to Farr West to a larger dairy farm. We would also go up to the top of the foothills above Pleasant View and coast down on our sleds late at night.
Great memories of Weber County.
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