Posted on 02/04/2008 8:20:41 PM PST by JRochelle
Of all the possible Super Tuesday outcomes, one is more certain than any other: Mike Huckabee will not carry the state of Utah.
In large part it’s because Mitt Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the man credited with saving the Salt Lake City Olympics, is more popular here than in any other state.
But the other reason is that overwhelmingly Mormon Utah has taken a profound dislike to the Southern Baptist preacher best known for his nice-guy persona.
The wellspring of Huckabee hate is a now-famous Dec. 16 New York Times Magazine interview in which the former Arkansas governor, in an “innocent voice,” is reported to have asked, “Don’t Mormons ... believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”
To Mormons, Huckabee’s eyebrow-raising question represented not only a gross distortion of their beliefs but also a carefully calculated move by a Christian politician who surely knew better.
Huckabee’s remark prompted Romney to call the comments “just not the American way” on NBC’s “Today” show.
Huckabee quickly apologized, saying that Romney’s Mormonism had nothing to do with whether he should be president. With that, the candidates and the national media moved on to other topics.
In Utah, however, all was not forgiven.
“There is a feeling that Huckabee has exploited a lot of the anti-Mormon sentiment,” said LaVarr Webb, a political consultant and publisher in Utah.
“The feeling is that he would certainly know the answers to these questions that he’s been asking sometimes,” said Chuck Gates, assistant managing editor of Utah’s Deseret Morning News.
According to Webb and other state political insiders interviewed by Politico, many Mormons maintain that Huckabee’s apology did not go nearly far enough.
Quin Monson, assistant director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University, says many observers believe that “evangelicals have rejected Romney, and that Huckabee is aiding and abetting that. ... He’s egging it on.”
As it turns out, this isn’t the first time that Huckabee has rubbed Utahans the wrong way. In the summer of 1998, then-Arkansas Gov. Huckabee, along with fellow national church leaders, attended the National Southern Baptist Convention in Salt Lake City.
At the time, the decision to hold the event in the shadow of the Mormon Tabernacle was viewed by many Mormons as an insulting stab directed at the very heart of the LDS church.
Worse, according to an account published in the Salt Lake Tribune during the convention, some 2,000 “messengers” of the Southern Baptist Convention went door to door in Utah and proselytized, “armed with questionnaires and their personal belief in Jesus Christ as their savior.”
Because of his participation in that convention and because of his theological background, many Utahans believe that Huckabee has been deeply disingenuous throughout the campaign — not just in one well-publicized interview — in his approach toward the issue of Romney’s Mormon faith.
The Huckabee campaign did not respond to e-mail and phone requests for comment.
The Baptists’ choice of Salt Lake City was a deliberate one, said James Guth, a leading authority on the influence of religion in politics and professor at Furman University.
The Baptists intended to “create a new mission field.” Mormons and the Southern Baptists, he explained, are members of “competing missionary religions.”
“It used to be that the Mormons were in Utah and Southern Baptists were in the South,” Guth said. “Now, Mormons are all over the world, and Southern Baptists want to be all over the world.”
Aside from the issue of clashing faiths, there is a more practical component to Huckabee’s unpopularity.
There is a widespread belief, not just in Utah but among many Romney partisans, that Huckabee’s long-shot — and lingering — candidacy is serving little purpose other than to siphon votes from Romney, Utah’s adopted son, by splitting the conservative vote against John McCain.
“There’s just the feeling that if we really wanted to unite behind a conservative candidate, we would unite behind Romney,” said Dave Hansen, former campaign manager for Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah).
“You can’t force [Huckabee] out, but all things considered, I think there are a lot of conservatives who wish he were not still in the race.”
In the unlikely event that Huckabee does capture the Republican nomination, his Utah baggage could come back to haunt him.
In the deeply red state where President Bush still maintains some of his highest approval ratings, a place that has ranked as the most Republican state in the nation in six of the past eight presidential elections, a BYU poll released Monday reveals that Huckabee would pull off the seemingly impossible.
As GOP nominee, he would lose the state of Utah in a hypothetical matchup with Democrat Barack Obama, 58 percent to 42 percent.
Romney, by contrast, would defeat Obama 69 percent to 31 percent. McCain would also win against Obama, though by a more modest 55 percent to 45 percent.
Still, there are limits to how much Utah dislikes Huckabee: In a head-to-head matchup with Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, Huckabee wins handily, 60 percent to 41 percent.
Such love from their religion... Are they biased against Huckabee for some reason?
You should donate your head to the Utah Eccles Institute of Human Genetics to study your anomaly. /sarc
this really isn’t a religious debate but whether I, as a Jew who does not believe Jesus is compatible with my faith, would vote for someone that does. I probably would because I am voting for a president for America, not a president for the Jews.
Well, the reason I asked for differentiation, in regard to your statement -
"when you can name one admiral or general that supports Romney, please tell me as I’d really love to know."
is that anyone serving in the military, most particularly an "admiral or general", is prohibited from endorsing any political candidate.
I suspect you know that but thought others might not, therefore...
I have a whole lot in common with the people of Utah, except for not being able to vote for mccain.
I believe Huck did exploit the mormon thing.
Freedom of religion as long as you are Baptist.
This evangelical isn’t a fan of Shucksabee either.
“The whole line that Huckabee should drop out in order to stop McCain is stupid.”
It sure is.
Huckabee is McCain’s poodle now, and the only person to say whether huckabee stays or goes is the man pulling the leash!!!
yes but you could still ask them in private, right?
Bullcrap. Utah politics have a long history of backlashing against candidate or causes which are overtly religious regardless if it is favorable to Mormons or not.
Look at the banning alcohol vote in the early 19th century..
Look at Bill Orton against Karl Snow. Karl Snow overplayed his Mormon religousity and it backfired against and the voters went with Bill Orton the democrat.
The list is quite long.
If one is quiet about the religion issue or plays it gently it goes well. But, if it is anything more than that then the voters go against you in a hurry.
Mike Huckabee plays his religion card too hard and that has polarized the voters against him.
“If the Methodists or the Greek Orthodox church held their convention next to a Baptist center, would the Baptists see it as “as an insulting stab directed at the very heart of the church”? I don’t think so.”
Depends on if the Methodists/Greek orthodox *also* had speakers and literature calling the Baptists an unChristian dangerous cult that was pulling people away from true faith, and calling on conversion to ‘save’ people. *That* would get anyone peeved, although all reports are the LDS faithful kept their cool.
it works both ways though. You can’t win the general election with only utah and a few other small states
“although all reports are the LDS faithful kept their cool.”
They should, since the LDS purposefully disfellowships with all non-Mormon denominations, it would be pretty disingenuous of them to complain when other groups do the same to them in return.
“One the one hand, Huckabee supporters are bigots.
Yet on the other, they would switch to Mitt if Huckabee would drop out.
Which is it?”
The bigot supporters will keep flocking to the most egregious RINO they can find so long as its not a mormon.
The non-bigot Huck supporters are just befuddled and confused, thinking a soft-on-crime tax-and-spend populist is ‘conservative’ because he’s prolife and wears his christianity on his sleeve.
“Mitt should be depending on other candidates to help him win.”
Yeah, just like Mccain is - letting the conservative vote get split so he can win the nomination ... yikes!
No argument here. You gotta reach out.
“A folksy Minister “
“That folksy politician won two elections for lieutenant governor and continued to win elections to serve another 10 or 11 years as governor.”
... running on a platform to expand Govt healthcare spending - the ArKids program, and implementing numerous tax increases.
better a convert than a traitor - Another Conservative for Mitt!
I’m not confused. pro-life is more important. that is what we are fighting for...I have, ever since I first identified myself as a Republican.
What is that supposed to mean?
“If we listened to McCain in 2005, we’d still have control of congress.”
If we listened to McCain in 2007, we’d have lost control of the COUNTRY via amnesty for 20 million. A MUCH BIGGER ISSUE!
And no, I dont think McCain the backseat driver deserves especial credit for agreeing with Bush on the surge, so did Rudy, so did Mitt, so did others.
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