They Can’t Wait, There Is Reason Somewhere, and more…
This is what we got together by late last night. We are both in College Station for The Speech. We’ll post as soon afterwards as possible. The blue box has more…
Just in Case…
…Romney does not do what the press really wants him to do (go deeply into Mormon belief), they have decided to do it for him:
- Examiner
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Beliefnet
- Baptist Press (no surprise there!)
The expectations for this thing are so all over the map and it seems like all anybody really wants is more to talk about. This stuff is the oldest news there is on this whole topic. It has been discussed over and over and over again. Never underestimate the power of the American media to overstate the obvious.
Speaking of what Mormons think – give me a break! Besides, I’m no Mormon, but I thought Elmyra, NY was the Mormon “hometown” – not Nauvoo, IL. [Lowell: Palmyra, actually. Nauvoo was the place where Mormons flourished the most before moving west.]
The Problem with The Speech…
…is that although it has yet to be given, people are already attacking it. Come on people – give the man a chance here!
Yet it is the Corner nicknamed “Prince of Darkness” that really sounds dire:
Two weeks ago it was settled policy within Mitt Romney’s campaign that his speech dealing with his Mormon faith would be delivered much later — if at all — and only after primary election victories. Romney suddenly overruled his advisers to undertake that risky venture today in College Station, Texas, for one reason: Mike Huckabee’s ascent in Iowa.
Romney had been told by campaign strategists that flooding television screens with ads financed by his ample funds could win the critically important Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses for the former governor of Massachusetts in a state where Mormons comprise 0.5 percent of the population. That was working as Romney led the state’s polls until former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, came from nowhere to challenge Romney for first place. Surveys detect substantial anti-Mormon bias.
But on the up side, do you think this being published yesterday by the Heritage Foundation is a coincidence? Romney has always had this option on the table and it has been trial balooned to death in recent months, but when you see pieces like “The Meaning of Religious Liberty” mysteriously appearing at the Heritage Foundation website the night before Romney s to deliver a speech on the same topic, you have to know strategy is at play, and this is not reactionary. The campaign is on record saying that if anything affected this decision it was the pre-Thanksgiving push-polling, not Huckabee.
But then, Novak really started this WHOLE enchilada, especially for Lowell and I. He has a lot at stake in portraying a very specific picture.
Assume the Heritage piece gives us Romney’s outline, something we will find out in just a few hours. It is an excellent potential speech, it offers the rabid Evangelical fringe two alternatives – either join the mainstream of American history, or risk being relegated to the outside of the Big Tent. It does so with a positive appeal and not with denouncements, it offers choices, it does not make demands. Most especially, it comes from a position of leadership, not base appeal. Sounds right to me.
Give me a Break…
Ross Douthat tackles the Richard Cohen piece we liked so much yesterday.
Wait … so “because he is a preacher,” Mike Huckabee knows that the “right answer” to the question is – what? That Mitt Romney is a Christian, in the sense that a former Baptist minister like Huckabee would define the word?
[...]
Richard Cohen wants to live in a world where these topics never get discussed. Fair enough. But asking candidates for public office to flat-out lie about their theological differences doesn’t seem like a great way to get there.
Come on Ross. you’re setting up a straw man and then knocking it down. The answer to the question is irrelevant to the argument Cohen made, the point is Huckabee rose to visibility with the invocation of religion. He cannot now hide from it.
The more I think about this, the more I think Huckabee is just very ham-fistedly trying to imitate the Bush campaign. During both Bush runs, the idea that he was “one-of-us” seemed to float around the internet without origin. I got email after email. Of course, the Dems believe rove was the source of all of it, but have yet to produce any evidence thereof. But what is important is the candidate – Bush – never, ever said anything remotely in that territory. He ran a straight up, normal presidential campaign.
Huckabee has; however, opened his yap, and he who lives by the sword, does by it. No further evidence needed than this piece by the NYTimes that profiles his “ministry.” They want to paint him with the same brush as his friends the Copeland’s – TV evangelists currently under Congressional investigation. The long knives have arrived and more than Huckabee will suffer; the Evangelical political voice is at stake.
Reason Remains In Some Corners of The Creedal Christian World
The Cybercast News Service talks to Christian pastors that do NOT think Romney’s faith is a big deal.
Christian conservatives considering the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney in early primary states will arrive at a defining moment this Thursday when the candidate discusses his Mormon faith in a major speech.
This assessment comes from Rev. Lou Sheldon and other Christian leaders who do not see Romney’s religious beliefs as a major impediment to his attaining the Republican presidential nomination.
Funny how this story is coming from an “alternative” news stream, not the typical MSM. The MSM wants, desires, even lusts after a religious showdown – it makes great copy and it robs the right of power. Thus stories like this tend to be relegated to the dark corners of journalistic distribution.
As Evangelical consider their votes, they might want to think about such things. Even if you not voting for romney for the right reasons, how you talk about it to the press will be used against you, even us.
In General…
The WaPo/Newsweek feature “On Faith” has a fascinating question this week:
Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church just hosted its third “Global Summit on AIDS and the Church.” Do you think the world’s biggest social problems — poverty, disease, homelessness — can be cured by well-intentioned religious believers?
The answers are all over the map. As the various voices chime in. This question hits right at the heart of the religion/politics mix. At the heart is the essential question of where to turn with a crisis, church or government? recommended reading throughout the week as the answers roll in.
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