Hang-ups over Mormonism proved Romney's undoing

The Salt Lake Tribune ^ | 02/10/2008 | Thomas Burr

[Utah Binger]

WASHINGTON - The day after Mitt Romney formally announced he was seeking the White House, a USA Today headline blared "Will Mormon faith hurt bid for White House?" Anchors on the major networks asked the same question and a stream of pundits predicted Romney's Mormon religion would be a significant hurdle. Almost one year later, on Thursday, Romney withdrew from the race after suffering several big losses and facing an insurmountable challenge to beat Republican rival John McCain. The degree to which his faith contributed to that defeat may never be fully known. It's clear, however, that Romney's belief in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cost him in his presidential quest. Romney himself acknowledged that had he been a Baptist, for example, he may not have lost the Iowa caucuses - a devastating setback to his early surge strategy.

[Utah Binger]

A lesson for all seeking public office. Resign your religion. Declare yourself a Deist. Admit all religion is good. And most of all...stop being so defensive. Makes you look very weak.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Such BS.

Romney's undoing was that McKeating is the MSM's pet Republican.

[pissant]

Nonsense. Flip got plenty of evangelical votes, even if Fred or Huck got more.

Now how did those Mormon voters vote?

[proxy_user]

What baloney!

The truth is, if you are an arrogant technocrat, no one will like you. Romney was the ultimate conservative policy wonk who took his positions based on studies by right-wing think tanks, but nobody cared.

[Fzob]

The reality is that many evangelicals believe Mormonism to be a cult. Romney never had a chance on the national stage.

[cripplecreek]

Bull

At this point I wouldn’t vote for the man simply because opposing him in any way gets me called a bigot by pathetic children who studied at the Jesse Jagmo school of victimization.

[Paleo Conservative]

I don’t think it was Mormonism that hurt him. He was after all the governor of the most “liberal” state in the union and had to make deicisions that wouldn’t help him when trying to run for the presidency. He also started out with musch less name recognition than the four term senior incumbent senator from Arizona.

[Blogger]

Baloney.

[BibChr]

No, that’s silly. The lesson of Romney is that if you’re a cultist, you’d better have something else to offer that people can really believe.

That Romney’s a cultist was a minus. But most of us weren’t drawn to support him because of his unconvincing (or should I say “convincing”?) record of flip-flops.

We weren’t convinced that we understood his real political convictions.

That we did understand (and reject) his religions convictions was a minus, but not a deal-killer.

Hope you can handle that truth.

[Paleo Conservative]

Romney's undoing was that McKeating is the MSM's pet Republican.

Absolutely. They give McCain millions of dollars in unreported contributions in the form of frequent and favorable media exposure and have been for decades.

[Maelstorm]

Romney’s undoing is that his record did not reconcile with his Presidential run. That Mormonism is a sham didn’t hurt him as much as his seeming inability to convince people he was conservative. He supported a Nationalized Health Care plan that was only a degree different than Hillary’s. People might be in denial but he was a very weak candidate which was proven by his spending millions of dollars and squandering what was an impressive early lead. The more people heard Romney the less they liked him. I think the Republican party should require a common start date for running for the nomination. The starting a year out thing has really screwed us this election year.

[meandog]

While Romney's personal social conservatism was worthy of all to emulate (one life partner, hard-work, faith in God and family values) his downfall, IMO, is the deterioration of what constitutes "conservatism" Facts:
* There are more out-of-wedlock couples living together than ever before.
* While abortion percentage is down from its 90s high, the number of abortion still eclipse the 30 percent mark of pregnancies and there are growing numbers of children born out of wedlock.
* Girls who remain virgins until marriage are somewhere in the low 30 percent range of all marriages, the majority of those in high school believe sex before marriage is okay.
* Body graffiti (tattoos and piercing) are common place in kids 18 and older (some kids look like they stuck their face in a tacklebox.
* While the number of Americans believing in God remains high, the numbers of those actually attending churches of their faith is at an all-time low.
* Prison populations are growing at an alarming rate and the degree of the numbers of non-rehabilitatable sociopathic inmates (wanton murderers) is also alarming (Long ago I worked in a FFC and saw this trend first-hand).
* Personal savings is down for the typical American family while credit debt has skyrocketed.

Sorry to sound so much a pessimist, but for the social conservatives out there the future does not, IMO, look too bright...face it, John McCain is the closest to what the public is going to want.

[badpacifist]

HOOEY

[Maelstorm]

It is a cult built on a fiction not unlike Scientology.

[niteowl77]

A lesson for all seeking public office. Resign your religion.

Or at least switch to one from the "approved" list... and one that has adherents who will get bellicose and cow others.

Mr. niteowl77

"Iowa: the land between two rivers, and one consisting mainly of fools."

[Utah Binger]

pet Republican?

Pet RINO

[Utah Binger]

Now how did those Mormon voters vote?

That's secret stuff.

[SeaHawkFan]

Nonsense. Flip got plenty of evangelical votes, even if Fred or Huck got more. Now how did those Mormon voters vote?

One thing is for sure, Mormons did not open their wallets to support Romney. If they had, Romney would not have had to put in $35 million of his own money.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Hang-ups over Mormonism past liberalism proved Romney's undoing

There, fixed it.

[Utah Binger]

I always hated those brown nosers.