Today’s Reading List – June 7, 2007
More on the Republican Debate
NOT SURPRISINGLY, the Romney campaign's press release lists the news media commentators who liked his performance in the debate. It's still an interesting and impressive set of comments. For example:
Captain Ed: "How many times will Romney have to answer for his religion, and why does he have to do it at all? Romney gave a gracious and tenacious answer, which should be the last time he has to answer it."
CNN's John King: [A]nd Mitt Romney did good on the idea of Mormonism and invoking the idea of John Kennedy, a religion like yours, not to be afraid of and that's something his campaign will have to engage in probably more than just tonight as the campaign goes along."
Hotline's Emily Goodin: "Romney got the Mormon question. He quotes JFK – 'not a Catholic running for president but an American.' He also makes it political but slams it back on the press. Romney: 'I also believe there are some pundits out there who hope I'm going to distance myself from my church in order to help myself politically and that's not going to happen.'"
Elsewhere Around The Web
HERE'S A REUTERS VIDEO REPORT on Romney, Mormonism, and its effect on his candidacy. Nothing terribly new here for readers of this blog, but an interesting attempt to get the story right.
And here's a companion Reuters print piece about Romney's improving prospects, especially in Iowa. His faith is mentioned repeatedly. I am resigned to this; Romney will face constant attention on that basis for the rest of the campaign. My guess: If Romney's the nominee, for most people the religion issue will become background noise because it will be beaten to death by February 2008.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT THE CBS NEWS WEB SITE, David Miller interprets the Romney campaign's response to an effort by Giuliani's people to play games with religion stories (to see Miller's story you'll need to scroll to the end of the post):
Prophetic Of Things To Come? Mitt Romney’s campaign has already made clear that it will respond, quickly and strongly, to any attempt by another candidate to put Romney's Mormon faith in a negative light. Rudy Giuliani's camp learned that firsthand this week after circulating an article connecting Romney to a legend associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . . . Romney’s campaign quickly released a statement after the article was circulated. . . .
Giuliani’s campaign owned up to distributing the article, an action it called "a regrettable mistake."
This was only the first documented instance of another campaign bringing up Romney's religion. We expect that if there are any others, the next response may include even more forceful language.
That last sentence is pure speculation, of course, but the MSM loves the "Religion-is-a-problem-for-Romney" story and loves even more to stoke that story. (By the way, did you notice Miller's clever use of the word "prophetic?")
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