Well, first of all, I have family members who are Mormons, and I can tell you without a doubt that I love them. (But tell me, do you always go around judging the inside of people you just found out about? If so, you have a bigger problem relating to people than I have with Mormons).
If you have listened to Romney at all, he "gets" islamofascism and it's role in global terror.
Well maybe he does, and maybe he doesn't. You can't expect every voter to slice & dice every policy statement of every just-announced candidate when the vote is a year away, now can you? So at this early stage, not having had the opportunity to have a "sit-down" w/my buddy, Mitt, to capture all of his national security nuances, you can't blame folks for just asking big ballpark questions at this point.
I guess you don't understand that it's up to candidate to instill confidence in the voter. (Somehow, you think it's up to the voter to be 100% literate on every candidate and every issue a year before election-time).
So if at this point (you can go ahead and scold me in '08 if I don't know all of Mitt's terrorist nuances by then) if I'm pondering the Q: "Does Mitt instill confidence in me that he knows what he's talking about re: major world religions?"
Well, I don't have the answer to that for his knowledge of Islam, Hinduism, etc., but I already have the answer to that re: historic Christianity. He's flunked knowing what historic Christianity is. And if he's flunked that, then what's my confidence level in what he knows about Islam? (At this point, let's just say, it's not high; but it's open to being "enlightened.")
How do I know he's flunked historic Christianity? Because you can't make up your own version of say, Judaism, and expect everyone to nod their heads & go along with you. You can't come along and say, "See, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all prayed to these 'council of Gods' in Kolob and were, in turn, informed, that they would soon be new council members. And now, we've set up a temple to circumcize into the Latter-day Judaizers all these dead folks by proxy. Any volunteers?"
You can reform Judaism, but you can't just dessimate it and recast it so that you can no longer recognize it upon reading the Old Testament! When a presidential candidate believes that me, Joe Voter, is an apostate of my faith, I not only don't apologize for being "riled up" over that false assertion, but it gets my gall that so many evangelicals, Protestants and Catholics can just lay there, sleepy-eyed, and conclude, "More abuse! Fire away! (I'll vote for you, anyway)."
Of course Romney "flunks historic Christianity" - he's a Mormon and has different beliefs about that than you and me. What possible bearing that could have to his fitness to be Commander in Chief escapes me.
How do you know what Mitt Romney THINKS? I don’t think he has any ill feelings toward anyone, except maybe the jihadists.
“You can reform Judaism, but you can’t just dessimate it and recast it so that you can no longer recognize it upon reading the Old Testament! When a presidential candidate believes that me, Joe Voter, is an apostate of my faith, I not only don’t apologize for being “riled up” over that false assertion, but it gets my gall that so many evangelicals, Protestants and Catholics can just lay there, sleepy-eyed, and conclude, “More abuse! Fire away! (I’ll vote for you, anyway).””