1) I don't think Romney OR Obama have put a great deal of of effort into "vying for the evangelical vote", though Romney clearly is polling stronger with them (the Billy Graham endorsement probably helped). In fact, I haven't really seen a RAT candidate "vying for the evangelical vote" since Jimmy Carter... unless you count that phony "repentance" tour Clinton went on during Monicagate where he did photo ops coming out of church with a huge bible and looking downtrodden and somber (nobody bought it though)
2) Most of these articles analyzing the "Christian vote" are in fact, analyzing born again evangelical protestants. The mainstream media also uses the two terms interchangably. This is rather ironic, since the vast majority of people who identify as "Christian" in America today AREN'T evangelical protestants (Catholics, mainline protestants, Orthodox, and various non-denominational Christians making up a significant share of Christians voters), but apparently the media and many freepers feel the only "Christians" that are worth discussing -- or even acknowledging the existence of -- are those evangelicals. Strange since born again protestant evangelicalism is hardly representative of the typical "Christian" theology you will find.
3) Am the only one who realizes America has ALREADY elected "non-Christian" Presidents before? Last time I checked, Thomas Jefferson was a deist and while he admired Jesus, he strictly denied his divinity and didn't believe any of the miracles mentioned in the Bible were true.
I know and care little about the nuances of what defines a Christian, Mormons consider themselves Christians whether anyone else does or not but as I understand it the main problem people have with the Mormons is they are non-trinitarians.
We’ve had a few Unitarian Presidents, like Taft (who flat out said said as you know “I don’t believe in the divinity of Christ”). Looking it up they say both Adams’ and Fillmore were also Unitarians.
Taft, the last one, was one of the better men elected President in the 20th. So him not being a Christian (in the eyes of many) had nothing to do with anything.
I’d be happy to vote for a conservative Jew, Hindu, atheist, or weirdo pagan (we have a guy running for congress in NYC). Most Mormon Republicans are to Romney’s right, I’d be happy to vote for Jason Chaffetz for example.
Obama’s official religion (I think he’s an atheist not a Muslim, I have never bought that) is Rev Wrong’s Black power “Christianity” which a lot further from mainstream Christianity than Mormons in my opinion.
As for “vying”, yeah, Obama will get crushed. Except among non-White evangelicals.