Posted on 02/02/2008 5:39:51 PM PST by jdm
Mitt Romney has taken a detour from the frenetic campaign trail to attend the funeral in Salt Lake City of the Mormon leader, Gordon Hinckley, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, who died last week, aged 97.
For the Mormon candidate, it was a diversion he could ill afford as he seeks to win enough presidential delegates on "Super Tuesday" this week to keep him in the race for the White House.
Republican strategists said the funeral puts Mr Romney's Mormonism back on the political agenda - an issue he has largely managed to sideline in recent weeks as the focus has fallen on economic issues, where the multi-millionaire businessman thrives.
He now trails John McCain by more than 20 points in national polls. Jim Nuzzo, a former White House aide from Mr Romney's home state of Massachusetts, said: "There are two things that don't work out for Romney going to this funeral. One is reminding people that he is a Mormon. They're going to recognise that it's different from mainstream Christianity.
"The second is that when people are wondering whether your campaign is on life support, the last thing you want to do is be pictured at a funeral."
Mr Romney was already virtually guaranteed to win Utah on Tuesday, a state that gives relatively little return in the form of delegates required to win the nomination. The funeral interrupted a hectic cross-country battle for Republican votes, which translate into the delegates who will formally decide who will be the Republican candidate for the White House.
Up for grabs are nearly half of all delegates necessary to be crowned the victor at party nomination conventions in the autumn. Mr Romney squeezed in an event in Minnesota before the funeral, while Mr McCain began a trail through the South, while planning an audacious raid today on Mr Romney's home turf of Massachusetts.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton concentrated her efforts in the West yesterday before a sweep of eastern states today and tomorrow. Barack Obama was planning visits to eight states in the final 72 hours before voting.
Mr Romney has invested nearly $3 million (£1.5 million) more of his personal cash on advertising in the run-up to Tuesday's votes. Mr McCain has bought nationwide advertising on cable television. Mr Obama is on the air in 20 states and Mrs Clinton in 12.
McCain aides appeared reluctant to make political capital out of the funeral. One said: "Everyone has that in life, where unfortunately we've got to go to a funeral. We've all been there. He knew the man and obviously had a high regard for him."
But the McCain team believes that their rival should quit his self-funded campaign.
Mr Romney says he will reassess his prospects on Wednesday.
and to think the way you act are my brother...
Help!
The life they live might be more important than the rhetoric they preach? Verrrry interesting....
I always found it ironic that Bush 41 had a larger and more cohesive family than most of the other candidates who bashed him for past positions.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22966349/
“The nonbinding votes, the first step toward electing 18 Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention, were taking place in public schools, Grange halls, fire stations and town halls across the state.
Despite a sleet storm the night before that left much of the state coated with slush and ice, cars jammed the parking lot outside an Augusta elementary school where Kennebec County municipalities were caucusing.’
“Sarcams is an oft wasted gift on FR.”
I don’t know what a sarcam is, but I do know that every since I installed a sock cam about 4 months ago that I have not lost a sock, nor oddly gained a clothes hangar.
It does support my theory that some socks evolve into clothes hangars when no one is watching.
McCain is nuckin' futs; and liberal, too.
Well, a lot of us can’t stand you. Keep up the good work
Which part is the sarcasm? Mormons really DO believe Satan and Jesus are brothers. In their own words: “On first hearing, the doctrine that Lucifer and our Lord, Jesus Christ, are brothers may seem surprising to some – especially to those unacquainted with latter-day revelations,” says the statement. “But both the scriptures and the prophets affirm that Jesus Christ and Lucifer are indeed offspring of our Heavenly Father and, therefore, spirit brothers.”
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59168
“I don’t know what a sarcam is, but I do know that every since”
Thanks for the editorial assistance. Good luck with your socks and keyboard.
So are you saying that God did NOT create Lucifer? Or did he not create Jesus? I’m confused, if he created them both then aren’t they brothers in spirit? What is so disturbing about that?
My feelings about Mormons and their dedication to the founding principles of this country have evolved from my years of work in conservative causes.
Every cause I've been involved with, starting with Reagan's failure to win the Republican nomination in 1976, I've worked with Mormon conservatives in places where one would least expect to find them, North Dakota then and Pennsylvania now. Of course here our conservative volunteers are overwhelmingly Catholic with a large number of Evangelical Christians but the Mormons are easy to pick out because they are usually the only ones to turn down coffee!
I was very slow to warm up to Mitt Romney, partly because I felt there were better candidates available, but more because Harry Reid's performance has messed up a lot of what I thought I knew about Mormons being patriotic.
Before Reid became majority leader, he had a fairly middle of the road voting record not so different from our own RINO Senator Arlen Specter. Since I knew Tom Daschle well from my days as a Dakotan, I had high hopes that Reid would be at least somewhat cooperative with conservative positions here and there, particularly those he supported before becoming majority leader. While I understood his need to lead the opposition party, I didn't understand his sharp turn to the left and his strong alliance with the George Soros wing of the Democrat party.
Thus, I concluded that Mormon politicians were different from the people I knew and feared Romney, particularly after some of the liberal positions he took in Massachusetts, would be the same. I wasn't going to be disappointed again.
The events as they've unfolded since have convinced me that Mitt Romney is not going to be Harry Reid. The emergence of very vile posters who will not sheath their vitriol even long enough for you to bury a good moral and religious leader have convinced me that Mitt's religion might actually be an advantage for conservatives if, for no other reason, than that he's had a lot of training in standing up to the most vile of accusations, half-truths and personal attacks. I can not think of a more valuable trait in standing up to the enemedia which has broken president Bush and which turned McCain to the dark side starting in the mid-1980's.
Eloquent - and I fear to respond because I am ill equipped in the eloquence department. Thank you for your heartfelt observations and comments.
Go, Mitt!
“Thanks for the editorial assistance”
I just wanted to try my lines out, I don’t care about mistypes.
Catholics beleive that they literally eat Jesus every Sunday, so where is your post about that? There should not be anymore of Jesus left by now. I hope you are not a parent
I don't see how he could be faulted for this.
In terms of faith and simple dignity, and out of respect for a religious leader he obviously admires, it is inevitable that he attend the funeral.
More cynically, he would be beaten about the head and shoulders by every liberal cynic in the nation if he were to take a pass on it.
***He looks like he has a rock in his shoe all the time.***
Maybe it is all those years of commie NVA torture as a prisoner of war.
“And yet he did it anyway. That shows class.”
Yes, Mitt did the right thing, and it didn’t require much thought.
I recall that Vice President Harry Truman made news as the only public figure to attend the funeral of ex-convict disgraced former Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast. When asked why he went to the funeral, Truman replied “He was a friend”.
Anecdotal experience, true. But while I wouldn’t vote for a candidate based on his being Mormon, it certainly isn’t a negative. I honestly don’t know what the fuss is about.
Your ignorance is showing.
Bingo.
The difference is that Jesus existed prior to creation. He’s not “brothers” with Satan, a being who was created by God.
Do you see no difference between humans, angels, and God?
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