Republicans had better think very seriously about the fact that Mitt Romney in basically "unelectable" before they pick him as their Presidential candidate.
Posted on 11/21/2006 10:10:33 AM PST by colorcountry
53% of evangelicals say they wouldn't consider it, bad news for likely '08 hopeful Mitt Romney
WASHINGTON - About 43 percent of Americans wouldn't even consider voting for a Mormon for president, according to a new poll that shows an increase from previous surveys in the number of voters unwilling to support an LDS candidate for the White House.
The latest poll, released Monday, is bad news for Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Mormon Republican who is expected to make a 2008 presidential bid. Previous polls have shown a smaller share of Americans saying they would not vote for a Mormon presidential candidate.
A Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg poll in June found 37 percent of those surveyed wouldn't vote for a Mormon, while other surveys from the late 1990s showed about 20 percentwere opposed to a candidate from that faith.
Some 38 percent in the Rasmussen poll said they would consider voting for a Mormon, while 19 percent were unsure. Of those who identified themselves as evangelicals, 53 percent said they wouldn't consider voting for a Mormon candidate.
Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, which conducted the survey on its own, said Romney already faces difficulty if he decides to run because he's been governor of liberal Massachusetts and is not very well-known.
"I think that any time you have a number as high as 43 percent saying they won't vote for somebody it's a surprise," Rasmussen said. "It is one more hurdle for someone who already has a big hill to climb."
The poll of 1,000 likely voters was conducted Thursday and Friday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Romney's political action committee, the Commonwealth PAC, declined to comment on the poll.
"The governor has yet to make a decision whether or not he will run," said PAC spokesman Jared Young, noting Romney will announce his decision after the first of the year.
In other poll results, Romney had a 29 percent approval rating from those who knew of him, while 30 percent disapproved of him.
In a head-to-head matchup against Sen. Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat, Romney trailed 33 percent to 39 percent, according to Rasmussen.
Of course, only 19 percent of those surveyed could name Romney as the Mormon candidate from a list of six potential presidential contenders, Rasmussen reported.
Rick Beltram, an evangelical and chairman of South Carolina's Spartanburg County Republican Party, says he believes the poll is probably accurate, but also noted that a generic poll does not indicate how people feel about Romney after hearing him talk about his religion.
"That's obviously his biggest obstacle," Beltram says of Romney's faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "But I've also found that the more time that he or someone with him explains his beliefs, that's not the case."
Republicans had better think very seriously about the fact that Mitt Romney in basically "unelectable" before they pick him as their Presidential candidate.
If you keep repeating that enough, will it eventually become true?
OTOH, he might get the dyslexic hippie vote.
It seems like a reasonable statement. There is a lot of distrust of Mormons out there.
In point of fact, it's likely that there will be no evangelical Christian among the GOP frontrunners in '08, so why dump on Romney?
It already is true.
If Mitt were a serious contender, you would see tons of MSM reports on Mormonism, playing heavily to the polygamy (not officially recognized anymore) and other aspects the public may not like. That would drive the 43% figure much higher, I believe......fairly, or not.
First, I want to read the questions upon which this poll was based. Romney before McCain, IMO.
Let's be honest here...43% is the left-wing base of the Democrat Party. They aren't willing to support anyone who believes in God.
It's all in the acronyms. half of them confuse LDS with LSD.
Who cares whether he's a Mormon, he supports socialized medicine in the form of forced health insurance and gov't subsidized health insurance.
He belongs to a group of people that believe they will become gods. He has taken an oath to follow his Prophet in everything, and use everything within his power to "further the gospel of the Church." (Not the gospel of Christ - - but the gospel of his Church) To me that is a BIG problem.
The MSM will go after the Republican nominee no matter who he /she is. McCain will be in for a rude surprise from the MSM if he gets the nomination.
I would like to see a similar poll taken in 1958 about how many would vote for a Catholic President.
The other half confuses LSD with FOOD.
I think that is nuts. Why wouldn't they vote for an LDS if they'd vote for a pretender like Clinton?
Out of the options available, Giuliani has proven himself to be a strong leader in crisis and peerless on law & order issues (a good sign for constitutionalist judges and military issues).
As a result, he's my pick at this very early juncture. Besides, a president has next to zero impact on any social issues (how much movement have Reagan, Bush I and Bush II brought on abortion?).
Due to the dynamics of the race, Romney is smart by attempting to co-opt the religious right. Still, they are the one group most resistant to the LDS. And the more he poses as the religious conservative, the more objections he'll get from the secularists to his LDS background. A dicey game.
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