Is Romney Making A Mistake? (Fear of Huckabee?)

Heading Right ^ | Dec. 03, 2007 | Ed Morrissey

[jdm]

Mitt Romney has decided to give “the speech” — an address he prepared earlier this year to explain his Mormon faith and why it presents no threat to the Republic. He will deliver this oration at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library on Thursday, hoping to dispel the remaining vestiges of doubt over his qualifications for the presidency. Entitled “Faith in America”, the speech will bring the Mormon question directly into the mainstream of political commentary:

Romney has said for months that he saw no need to make an issue out of his religion, despite surveys that have suggested that some voters, especially in the South, are less likely to vote for him because of it. In a Washington Post poll earlier this year, his faith was regarded as a bigger stumbling block than the race of Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) or the gender of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.).

But yesterday, Romney’s campaign announced that he will give a speech about his faith Thursday at the George H. W. Bush presidential library in Texas. In a statement, spokesman Kevin Madden said that Romney will deliver a speech titled “Faith in America.”

“This speech is an opportunity for Governor Romney to share his views on religious liberty, the grand tradition religious tolerance has played in the progress of our nation and how the governor’s own faith would inform his Presidency if he were elected,” according to the statement. “Governor Romney understands that faith is an important issue to many Americans, and he personally feels this moment is the right moment for him to share his views with the nation.”

What made Romney decide to do this now? The timing could hardly be stranger. The Iowa caucuses are less than five weeks away, with the bulk of the primaries coming in two months. After a very long year of campaigning on issues and insisting that the Mormon question has nothing to do with presidential politics, it seems like a bad time to open the door to legitimatizing theological debate in the stead of policy debate.

The only conclusion one can draw is that the Romney team sees the issue as a drag on the candidate. Perhaps they worry that anti-Mormonism is behind the shift in opinion in Iowa. Likely caucus-goers have suddenly and dramatically shifted to Baptist minister Mike Huckabee, possibly as an indication of the discomfort some have with the Mormon religion. Team Romney may also have concluded that simply wishing away the potential discomfort doesn’t make it disappear, and hope that Mitt himself can issue a strong statement on religious liberty that will diminish the impact of anti-Mormonism.

Personally, I see this as a mistake. Reasoning with bigotry doesn’t usually have much effect, because bigotry isn’t founded on reason but fear. If “Faith in America” amounts to an apologetic on the LDS religion, it won’t get a meaningful enough response to make it worth the effort, and if it glides over the Book of Mormon towards a general declaration that religious faith has no bearing on the presidency, it will be nothing more than what Romney and his campaign have said all year long. Those who see Mormonism as a danger will not change their minds because a Mormon explains why it isn’t, or at least not enough to matter.

Perhaps “Faith in America” will have a different meaning in Romney’s speech. If he talks about how many of us from different backgrounds, faiths, and geographies all come together in this place because we have faith in the American ideal, then that would be a worthy speech. In the end, religion matters much less than that faith when it comes to public service, and matters much less than qualifications such as honesty, leadership, intelligence, and policy.

If so, though, this speech should have come much earlier in the campaign. Right now, it looks like Romney’s more worried about the polling than in defending religious liberty. That never looks good, and especially not within a few weeks of the first test of the primary season.

[Gondring]

The implied threat - conform to my religious world view, or never aspire to high office.

BZZZT!    False dilemma.

Nice try.