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.
If she (shudder) should get that far - which would you vote for = a devout Mormon or a devout and dedicated Communist?
Wanna compare doctrines?
With a Mormon president, Mormon 'Doctrine' will affect non-Mormons How? (What Mormon Doctrines did Mitt impose in Mass.?
Being plunged into Communist doctrine will sink us all...she is living, breathing for the chance to impose Communism...
Wrong -
First part is right. And the last democrat left DC when Zell left.
There are no more Democrats in DC - NOR liberals in the halls of Congress. When are we going to call them what they proudly call themselves behind closed doors, with their membership cards in their pockets:
AKA - Communists.
Why do we continue to let them use the cover of "democrats"?
You left out the word "Republican" =
“Huck is absolutely UNELECTABLE!!!!!!!!!!!! Damn he can’t even win over Evangelicals.”
It is worth pointing out that with every financial advantage
and many, many endorsements, Mitt hasn’t won over any group,
but mormons, and hasn’t won over all those.
And he is unelectable. The Republican public isn’t buying
what he is selling.
It may be his plastic persona, or his similar appearance
to Ward Cleaver, or his lack of warmth, or his failure
to connect with the little guy, or his flip flopping on
every significant issue of the day, or being from MA, and
it may even be his mormonism...
BUT,
apparently Mitt isn’t electable either.
I have to agree with you. The democrats today are Communists, and the three top republicans running today are socialists.
Thanks for explaining that to us, Coldwater Creek. Until you came along, I actually though that the conduct below classified as heroic. How foolish of me!
Please explain to us what REAL courage is so I don't make such a dumb mistake again.
Since you claim to know what a REAL HERO actually does, as opposed to what McCain did in Vietnam, I can only assume that you know such a person.
Please tell us what that person actually did that makes John McCain's conduct pale in comparison to the conduct of a mere "survivor".
It must have been realy awesome. I can't wait to hear the details!
I assume you understand the difference between “social conservatives” and “conservatives (in general)?”
I guess not.
Still anxiously waiting for your reply to #247.
You are a fool, if you haven’t done your research.
End of discussion!
We still haven't had the warcrimes trials for John Kerry, Teddy Kennedy, Robert McNamara, and others of their kind.
Incredibly John McCain is one of the guys who said we should quit agitating for a full accounting for all our POWs, and he's even cooperated on legislation with Kennedy and Kerry.
The man's confused and does not have a clear vision of what needs to be done.
We still haven't had the warcrimes trials for John Kerry, Teddy Kennedy, Robert McNamara, and others of their kind.
Incredibly John McCain is one of the guys who said we should quit agitating for a full accounting for all our POWs, and he's even cooperated on legislation with Kennedy and Kerry.
The man's confused and does not have a clear vision of what needs to be done.
Well this Christian loathes Huckabee. Anyone who exploits and bastardizes his faith for political gain should be scorned by all faithful people.
I’m not a Mormon but I loathe Huckabee as well. A man of quality he is not.
Asking you to back up your assertion is “research.”
You could not, so my research is done.
Your assertion is inaccurate and you are not credible.
Are you saying we should accept as the gospel truth the unsubstantiated assertions of a local PETA activist who probably makes love with her german shepherd.
Oh please.
I haven’t been misrepresenting Mormon beliefs. If anything I have asked a lot of questions. Sometimes I was wrong about things, sometimes I was right.
The last time I got into an arguement with a Mormon here on FR was when he insisted Joseph Smith married two 14 year old widows with children.
That was such a line of BS that I called him out on it. I was right, he was unable to prove his allegation. Joseph Smith was a sexual perv, persuading such young girls to marry him secretly and have sex with him.
Somehow that makes view me a bigot.
I have long since realized that disucssing theology does little good. People tend to get offended rather easily so I try to avoid it.
I am not anti-Mormon. I think their theology is wrong but then I think that of a lot of religions.
So do you.
This old soldier is going to commend you. You must be awful lonely out there in Utah. Latest I saw from there is Romney will get somewehere over 95%. Stick to your guns. Better to be right than popular.
Mormons seem to be “shocked, shocked” and offended that Baptists would use door-to-door evangelism in Utah. Apparently, caring for the eternal destiny of those who are lost is forboden, especially by future presidential candidates.
No basis for your allegations.
If I were to vote for the guy who is closest to my religious, I would be voting for Huckabee. I am not.
Unlike most Mormons, thats not how I make my political decisions. Your theory is BS too. Romney gets a much bigger % of evangelical vote than Huckabee gets of the Mormon vote. So you bigot theory is backwards.
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