Some history about Republicans and Evangelicals and the so-called “southern strategy.”

Once again, Romney seems to be leading the pack in how to campaign. But textbook campaigns do not always produce textbook results. Lowell: I think this is Romney’s Achilles heel. He has all the tools except the hardening that comes from years in politics. Not having been through national political wars, does he have the wherewithal to keep from stumbling along the way? I think so, but time will tell.

I have no idea on who wrote this or why, but I will say they have put their finger on THE ISSUE. The author’s analysis of the religion issue as it relates to Romney is simplistic, but it’s also possible we spend a lot of time here over-analyzing.  Lowell:  I too wonder the same thing from time to time.  Then I remind myself that this issue is going to come up, and it’s going to be discussed and over-analyzed, no matter what I do; so I come back to my thinking that trying to contribute some truth and sanity to the  discussions is the honorable thing to do.

Gratuitous Romney religion crack. I gotta tell you, to declare religion a non-issue for Lieberman, but maybe for Romney strikes me as prejudicial.

One blogger’s moderate perspective. I am not sure the “moderate” label is good for Romney - the base doesn’t much like “moderates.” And then there is that final gratuitous religion crack again - if it’s not an issue, why talk about it? Lowell: I’m afraid there’s no escaping it. As for the “moderate” thing, to call Romney a moderate shows how far the political spectrum has moved. His positions look solidly conservative to me. Still, he’ll have the same problem Bush the Elder had, to a certain extent: to show that despite his earlier more liberal positions (abortion, for example) he’ve moved to a conservative position and really means it.

Does worrying about the religion issue mean we are thinking like Democrats?

Lowell is a prophet. Yesterday he predicted it and here it is. Lowell: I wish I had been wrong.

It could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. WE NEED DATA! not speculation. What do you think - should Article VI open a tip jar to try and get together the cash for some polling? Lowell: That’s an interesting idea. It does seem to me that a lot of people are saying, essentially, “I think Romney’s great, but those mean old evangelicals will beat up on him in the Southern primaries because he’s a Mormon.” Do we really know that’s true? Aren’t a lot of evangelicals annoyed that such attitudes are ascribed to them? Some polling would help us find out.
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