It's funny you'd say that you were a Catholic. I had a friend for years and years who I thought was your garden variety "fundamentalist" (in both the good and negative sense)... very vocally Christian, creation science, pro-life and all that... he also thought that most Catholics weren't really Christians (for the same misunderstood reasons--Catholics worshipping saints, etc). He was basically a good Christian all around, he simply lacked a little knowledge, and he always referred to himself as a Christian and evangelized everyone & tried to get them to believe in Jesus.
I thought it was rather odd his Protestant denomination had priests, but I didn't find out for years that he was a Mormon. He thought he was a Christian and that being a member of the LDS church was simply a denomination.
Had to change my views of Mormons after that. (We had a goo dtalk and I found out that just as with Catholics, half the reasons that people use to argue that Mormons aren't Christians are outright false) Also, the Bible says to judge by the fruit from the tree, and personal experience tells me that a much higher percentage of Baptists are horrid than Mormons.
I've adopted a "don't judge" attitude concerning Mormons, just like I do with Christians or any other person. And, yes, I agree with you. A good Mormon would be good for America, but flip-flopping RINO Romney is no Mormon.
Excellent summary.
I'm disappointed in James Taranto's repeating the liberal spin that Christian conservatives won't vote for Romney because he's a Mormon. No, folks, we won't vote for him (unless the other choice is Hillary, God help us) because he's not a conservative.