This is a great article.
At the same time, you have to be struck by how Romney played in the South relative to other areas. Recall how he gave up in South Carolina after concluding that he just wasn’t going to gain traction there.
Something has to account for why he was able to do much better in some parts of the country than others, and I’m afraid that religion looks like the logical explanation.
Yes I think religion did play a big role in the South.
They voted for one of their own, Huckabee. He won most of the Southern states.
What parts of the country did Romney do well in?
#1 - States with lots of Mormons
#2 - States the Mitt & his family lived in for years.
He also won a few caucus victories with the help of the conservative anti-McCain vote.
That's it.
He played OK in the South in areas that have had a large influx of Moderates/Liberals: Florida, the Moderate parts of Tennessee, places like this. This could be religion and it could just as easily be that the stronger Conservatives did not trust him. If you look at the exit polling, the self-identified strong Conservatives went for Huckabee in states like Missouri. The 'Somewhat Conservatives' broke for Romney. McCain dominated the middle/Left.
When was the last time a NE coast Rockefeller Republican WON in South Carolina?
Perhaps it is Romney’s political posturing that made him impotent in the South, and has nothing to do with religion.
Now why would this same NE coast Rockefeller Republican garner 90% of the Utah vote, and win overwhelmingly in Wyoming or Nevada?
People don’t want to acknowledge that because they don't want to be accused of being bigoted "Christians". So they dance around it like this article does.
Mitt is the best on economics as well. What we desperately need is someone who understands business. That person is certainly not Huckabee or McCain. It's no wonder CPAC a true conservative organization ENDORSED Mitt, not Huckabee or McPain. They could look past the Mormonism and realize he was the best candidate.
“At the same time, you have to be struck by how Romney played in the South relative to other areas. Recall how he gave up in South Carolina after concluding that he just wasn’t going to gain traction there.”
“Something has to account for why he was able to do much better in some parts of the country than others”
Something that never gets mentioned is that the south prefers masculine men, regardless of what else they are.
Romney was born male, he has married and reproduced, but no one will confuse him with being masculine.
The football star gun lover (Thompson), the Army Ranger (Hunter), the POW (McCain), the outdoor loving hunter (Huckabee), the tough as nails New York prosecutor (Giuliani), I can see all of these guys wanting to share an Alaska getaway of Scotch, cigars, and fresh game together, but I can’t see them wanting to include the granola boy/man, and southerners have a sensitivity to these same things.