“These values voters, many of them moderate “choice” voting Baptists, Catholics and Evangelicals, see Romney as a member of a religious cult, and their perception of Sarah Palin is largely shaped by the media. They see her as a drag on the Republican party.”
I don’t think that’s quite right, at least not for these entire groups, but you have hit on the main problems for both Romney and Palin. I frankly would rather have Romney than Huckaboob any day, and I’m a Baptist. They do consider his religion a cult, but some of us say so what? We’re not talking about electing a president of a theological seminary, but of a country. We all know, like him or not is irrelevant, he would be destroyed because of his religion - the Huckaboob already saw to that last year. Sarah changed the whole thing for many of us, and I don’t think that many in these groups are swayed by the media’s attempted destruction of her. At least Baptists and evangelicals (same thing basically) are not. We know one of our own when we see her. Nobody I know saw her as a drag, that’s for sure. She was more like a miracle. And now we just pray she will run.
Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s my two pennies.
They do consider his religion a cult, but some of us say so what? Everyone does, the Greek Orthodox, the Roman Catholic Church, the Methodists, Lutherans ect., all Christian churches are on the same page on this. don't let people lead you to think that this is some Baptist or Southern thing that is limited, it is universal among all the major Christian denominations, all of them require Christian Baptism for Mormon converts.