Article VI Blog

The Kate O’Beirne - Laura Ingraham interview referred to below brought a raucous (and pleasant) laugh from Laura and a smile from me. I think we both appreciated the irony: a Mormon might come out ahead in the race because he has only one wife.

Humor aside, the interview got me thinking. O’Beirne has highlighted an interesting aspect of the GOP race from the standpoint of shared values among evangelicals and Mormons. Honorable, stable marriage and loving families, and protecting both, are among those values. Mormons make the family one of the central pillars of their faith, as do evangelicals.

I want to make it clear that I intend nothing even close to sanctimony about this. Marriages break up, and it is not always the fault of both partners, or even evidence of any truly serious failing in either partner. Because almost everyone recognizes that, I don’t think evangelical or Mormons voters would reject a candidate based simply on a divorce; Ronald Reagan is the obvious precedent.

It wasn’t always so easy for a presidential candidate to overcome negative reaction to a divorce. Consider Nelson Rockefeller, who

emerged as the clear favorite for the presidential nomination in 1964. His divorce and remarriage in 1963, however, brought about a decline in his popularity that he was not able to overcome.

Reagan ended that stigma. But two divorces, at least one of them messy, as Giuliani and Gingrich have both experienced, may turn off a fair number of voters who care about such things. As for Allen’s and McCain’s divorces, it seems unlikely that voters will care much about them.

What does all this have to do with Romney, his Mormonism, and evangelical worries about that faith? Well, by comparison to the other leading candidates, Romney may look pretty good to family-oriented voters. It is not that McCain et al. look bad, it’s just that Romney looks unusually good in the marriage department. These days, being married to the same woman for thirty-seven years is fairly unusual, in a positive way.

Then there’s Romney’s wife Ann (whom both John and I have met– John spoke with Mrs. Romney for an extended period). I can report that she comes across as the intelligent, down to earth mother of five grown sons. And news media profiles say things like this:

Ann Romney, though largely invisible back home in Massachusetts, is winning praise as a warm and witty sidekick as her husband begins to spread his name and promote his possible candidacy around the country. She has taken the microphone at several recent GOP events and been a big hit each time. . . .

Mitt Romney often talks about his storybook relationship with his wife, which began nearly 40 years ago in Michigan when he was 18 and she was 15. They married in 1969. He calls her ”my sweetheart,” and often makes a point of referring to her in speeches — sometimes in self-deprecating jokes.

As Romney’s campaign unfolds, we expect to see more photos like this one.

All this, friends, just might play in Peoria. And in South Carolina as well.
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