Posted on 02/08/2007 2:31:51 PM PST by Plutarch
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 As he begins campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is facing a threshold issue: Will his religion he is a Mormon be a big obstacle to winning the White House?
Polls show a substantial number of Americans will not vote for a Mormon for president. The religion is viewed with suspicion by Christian conservatives, a vital part of the Republicans primary base.
Mr. Romneys advisers acknowledged that popular misconceptions about Mormonism as well as questions about whether Mormons are beholden to their churchs leaders on public policy could give his opponents ammunition in the wide-open fight among Republicans to become the consensus candidate of social conservatives.
Mr. Romney, in an extended interview on the subject as he drove through South Carolina last week, expressed confidence that he could quell concerns about his faith, pointing to his own experience winning in Massachusetts. He said he shared with many Americans the bafflement over obsolete Mormon practices like polygamy he described it as bizarre and disputed the argument that his faith would require him to be loyal to his church before his country.
People have interest early on in your religion and any similar element of your background, he said. But as soon as they begin to watch you on TV and see the debates and hear you talking about issues, they are overwhelmingly concerned with your vision of the future and the leadership skills that you can bring to bear...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Yes & not so fast. Yes: a prob for Dems.
more of a problem...than it is for Republicans...
Not so fast: You imply that it's just the mere mention of God himself who's provocative to Dems. Well, it's not simply the presence of divinity, but the definition of him that concerns some voters. (Yes, as the MSM has been trying to light a fire of recognition, the god of Mormons is indeed provocative to many Evangelical voters....What? You think evangelicals think they bow down to the same God as the God of the Mormons? Even LDS leaders are on record saying they worship different gods).
So how's this going to eventually play out in the press? Some evangelical voters will eventually gain a higher profile & raise the red flag about a candidate whose god is a literal "god factory." Somebody is eventually going to ask Mitt the tough questions: "Mr. Romney, do you believe you can become a god at some point? Does your God transform dozens, thousands, millions to become gods themselves?"
It'll be interesting to see how he answers. Because I'm also interesting in knowing why those who've already decided to push Romney why they'd be willing to vote for any candidate (never mind that it's Mitt or any LDS person) who tells you with a straight face that they are godhood-bound.
Titter titter, Tee hee hee. BWAAA HAA HAA.
The current president has stirred far more discussion about faith.
The discussions of Mitt Romney's and his (BWA HAA HAA) religion as relates to his candidacy for president have just started to skim the innate slime of LDS. Lunatic multi-planet dwelling polytheism, polygynous, scandalous founders, etc., etc., will render Romney a pathetic footnote to the pantheon of forgettable presidential contenders.
Enjoy the fleeting day before the pathetic joke is splayed open.
It may be hard for you to believe this, but there is a very human tendency to ignore an objectionable issue if possible to do so, allowing the mind to form no opinion if forming one requires facing difficult facts. I don't find it incredible that Mitt Romney has so recently discovered the reality of abortion on demand and the effect of dehumanizing the alive unborn with the Roe ruling. In fact, this controversy may just be the vehicle through which this man Romney awakens the nation's conscience to the life of the unborn from embryo to birth. Has he set about to do this? No, but it may well be the result of this controversy being heated up by those trying to destroy his candidacy.
These things matter. They define what you'll get for a president.
hmm...but let's not make it an issue for hussien obama....
Ever been to Utah? I lived there for six months in 2005, saw them trying to take bingo away from little old ladies.
..take it to the bank--Mitt will not make it--and religion will have very little to do with it...
Depression would show up as suicide. Utah is only high middling.
And if you look at other State statistics,like toothless residents, the Utah population usually comes out pretty well.
I'm growing tired of your efforts to attack other candidates as a way to promote your choice. Not only is it too early to spew such stuff, it's a democrap tactic. Stop pinging me if that's all you can manage to do at FR. Try promoting what your choice candidate stands for, FIRST.
Yes, they matter. The family man + administrative skills are always good PR plugs. However, a POTUS goes beyond being a good father & administrator.
For example: If a person is vulnerable to deception in the most important area of his life (his faith), how wide open will he be to deception in areas like foreign policy or national security or terrorist issues? If discernment is lacking in defining true faith and true/false religion, will a POTUS flunk the basics of an Islamofascism test?
I've said it before here, and I'm saying it again: If Romney gets the nomination, he will be chewed up and spat out by the clintonistas in the general election, and all the people here who think his religion is unimportant and will vote for him in the primaries will have helped throw away the white house in 2008. Did the 2006 election not teach us anything? After what I'm seeing in the short time since the dems took over congress, to me winning is a helluva lot more important.
Many Christians will find the diety issue extremely important. They will want to know that their president is praying to the same God that they are... especially during any trying times our nation will face. I believe many Christians were comforted in knowing that during the darkest hours immediately following September 11th, that George Bush was praying to the Lord.
The Mormons view God much differently than evangelicals. And that will be a sticking point.
> Romney's qualifications are as good as or better than his rivals.
I'm sorry if my remark led you to believe that I thought Mitt was not qualified. In my opinion he is, as is Rudy, and John, and Duncan, etc.
The bar isn't that high. A president has to know how to lead; how politics works and how to work politics; how to give long, rambling, almost ambigous answers to short, direct questions; and so on. (The last itemt is probably as significant as the rest.)
ROTFL....talk about going to lengths to make a point.
Say what you want about polygamy and Mormons. Romney is the only GOP possible who has had only one wife.
I agree. (Altho many will be quick to accurately point out the spiritual temperature of any candidate likely to emerge from the other side).
And so the discussion will continue to be: "Evangelicals, it's likely you're gonna have to give up something precious to you in an ideal candidate profile beyond the primary. So ya might as well give up the security of an actual prez whose praying to the same God you are."
Certainly, not comforting in a post-911 world.
Sorry, I think this one is a show stopper... God lives on a distant planet, the planet KOLOB, This one is too far out there. Like in Outerspace
Is that any stranger than believing Jesus is going to rapture everyone tomorrow?
These sorts of questions rarely come out during debates, most people really would not want to hear about it...
Good point (I think).
(I say "I think" because I'm sure there's a few Mormons out there who've had extra wives sealed to them in their temple "for eternity" and I just would never know who exactly they are or aren't. So these LDS are monogamists "for time" but polygamists "for eternity." It's all a matter of how ya wanna slice & dice it).
Cool stats, thanks. I'm happy to see the suicide rate is not high; read the article I linked though.
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