Posted on 02/10/2008 9:37:21 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
A no soliciting sign? On my house?
No - I’d rather not.
Besides...problem seems to be taken care of.
“The more people heard Romney the less they liked him.”
I’m not sure if you could ever prove that.
Victim?
If he were a member of any mainstream denomination instead of a religion that rejects ALL Christian denominations he would have been a much better choice.
Wow! Another “out of context expert”. Did I ping you?
mormon, or muslim, hmmmm,
whatever problem I may have with mormon, I’d prefer them over being represented by a muslim.
Barry Obama knocking!
“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.”
Romney raised 53 million outside his own money; the next highest is McCain at 41 million.
” Is is more like a mish mash of government school kindergarten, “Let’s all be nice!”, amorphous Deism.”
AKA “least common denominator Christianity”, the bar of which gets lower every year.
I saw this in my own family. My father in law told me as a Southern Baptist he was in the Huckster’s camp, and had his hangups with Mitt.
I myself will vote against McCain in the Mississippi primary.
“But I notice we have some of the same old Romney haters here pretending it was no factor at all. “
Reminds me of the anti-Americans who claim the Jihad is only about U.S. foreign policy — it has nothing to do with Islam or Christianity.
“It wasn’t Mitt’s time that’s all. Just like Reagan was cheated in 76. Now Mitt has time to show us if he is really a Conservative Convert. If he can show us he has seen the light, next time will be different.”
Agree. Mitt was just getting his footing, and he made some campaign mistakes. But every thing about him exudes “conservatism” and nobody knows this better than the media.
It is a much bigger factor than most of my Utah friends, relatives and neighbors will admit. Personally I do not have any problem with Mormons, however there are a few quirky things that certain outsiders and ex-Mormons really get worked up over.
I find it very entertaining to watch the heated and sometimes abusive behavior that occurs here regarding such things.
It’s hard to recognize as Christianity when they don’t even believe in Christ’s resurrection.
Interesting that Michael Savage, who had been previously critical, said exactly the same thing while he was playing clips from the CPAC speech on the drive home Thursday night. I tend to agree with Dr. Savage.
If Mitt plays his cards right and shores up his conservative bonafides, he could be back in four years. I'd like to see him do a radio show or something to prove he's the real deal.
I actually started really warming up to him after Fred dropped out and see his Mormonism as an advantage for two reasons:
Interesting that Michael Savage, who had been previously critical, said exactly the same thing while he was playing clips from the CPAC speech on the drive home Thursday night. I tend to agree with Dr. Savage.
If Mitt plays his cards right and shores up his conservative bonafides, he could be back in four years. I'd like to see him do a radio show or something to prove he's the real deal.
I actually started really warming up to him after Fred dropped out and see his Mormonism as an advantage for two reasons:
I was impressed with Savage, that he supported Romney. Sometimes I think of Savage as being the male Ann Coulter, a shock-jock of sorts. But he proved his sincerity to me by backing Romney in the campaign.
I heard an Evangelical say that he supported Mitt precisely because of his Mormonism — because Mormons are dedicated to a life of service.
“So that’s 11% of ALL voters. Then when they broke that down, since conservatives were MORE likely to vote for an LDS POTUS candidate than either liberals (9% more) or moderates (11% more), you have to conclude that the breakdown of that 11% was: 4% liberals; 4% moderates; 3% conservatives.
So stop knocking the 3% of conservatives when 94-95% of LDS voters did the exact same thing in reverse...those LDS voters took into consideration the “personal qualities” of a candidate, according to the Salt Lake Tribune...and voted accordingly.”
Your math is all wrong. If 11% of ALL voters said they would not vote for a Mormon, but more conservatives would vote for one, and fewer moderates and liberals would, then the numbers would likely be around 12%, 10% and 9%. It can’t be computed exactly with the data you provided. But since 11% of the TOTAL is the base percentage, that would be adjusted up and down slightly to show the differences, not divided by three, and then adjusted as you did. Your adjusted numbers are wrong.
I’m not knocking anybody, just discussing the factor Romney’s religion might have played in the voting patterns.
Well, I am knocking those here who pretend it was no factor at all, and that the article was invalid. Around 10% is a big factor in a close race.
“Not difficult to poll.”
I said difficult to poll accurately, due to what many refer to as the “Wilder Effect,” or some people are reluctant to admit their prejudice when asked questions by a pollster. So, it’s assumed by many that some will not admit their prejudice, and that the numbers are likely higher than the poll results show. No way to really quantify how much.
You make some very good points, however on this point, I see that as his greatest weakness. Mitt was always on the defensive; always fighting back. He needs to get over the Mormon complex, rise above it and do a more friendly approach in a sort of Reagan way. I don't mean to copy Reagan, but to laugh off the silliness and turn certain things said into positives. My tagline is what I mean.
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