.....a top official at the conservative, fundamentalist Bob Jones University is throwing his political support to Mormon presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.
Robert R. Taylor, dean of the university's college of arts and sciences, said he believes the former Massachusetts governor is the only Republican candidate who both stands a chance of winning the White House and will reliably implement the anti-abortion, antigay marriage, pro-gun agenda of Christian conservatives.
"The fact that I'm seen as a Religious Right person would hopefully get others to step out for him," Taylor said in an interview in Greenville, S.C., the university's hometown.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/13250.html (Romney gets some help from Bob Jones University)
Taylor’s endorsement, which he said he plans to announce in the near future, marks a stunning move for such a high-placed academic at Bob Jones University…. Taylor acknowledged that endorsing a Mormon for president risked alienating the university’s conservative donors and alumni. But, he said, “we’re not electing a pastor — we’re electing a president.”
It gets back to a point I argued last week: slowly but surely, the religious right is coalescing around Romney. At the start of the year, this seemed highly unlikely — Christian conservatives simply wouldn’t be able to get over their theological differences with the former Massachusetts governor.
But the circumstances have changed. Rudy Giuliani is a threat the religious right movement, Fred Thompson is too weak, John McCain is too untrustworthy, and Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback aren’t competitive enough. Romney offers evangelicals a competitive candidate who, at least now, says everything they want to hear about abortion and gays