Article VI Blog

« More Huck Analysis, More McCain and Hagee, and more… | Altering The Landscape. »

Open Thread Question to Our Readers!

Posted by: John Schroeder at 04:52 am, March 11th 2008 &mdash 8 Comments »

The political news is rife, since Karl Rove suggested is last week, with talk of Mitt Romney as the Vice Presidential choice for the Republicans. Not a single article has appeared questioning whether his faith would hurt the ticket. What is the difference between the top spot and number two? Why so much ink when Romney was a presidential candidate and so little when he is discussed for Veep? Is the Evangelical vote already written off for McCain? If not, why would they vote for a Mormon Veep anymore than a Mormon POTUS?

Lowell adds some provocative (he hopes) thoughts: Some months ago I wrote here about Thomas Griffith, who had been general counsel to BYU and is now a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is the second-most important federal appellate court after the Supreme Court. Judge Griffith happens to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and had written a long article about the Church’s beliefs about Jesus Christ. I asked readers to imagine that they were U.S. Senators an conservative Evangelical Christians who were considering Judge Griffith’s nomination, and then I asked these questions:

1. Would you you take the [judge’s] religious views . . . into account in deciding whether or not to support his nomination? Presumably no, because the views are purely theological, and to take Griffith’s religion into account is flatly prohibited under Article VI to the Constitution.

2. Would your answer to Question 1 change if Griffith were before you as a nominee not to the D.C. Circuit, but as a sitting D.C. Circuit judge now proposed for elevation to the U.S. Supreme Court?

3. If your answer to Questions 1 or 2 is “no,” do you see any difference between excluding Griffith’s Mormonism from your consideration of him as a judicial nominee, on one hand, and excluding Romney’s religion from your consideration of him as a presidential candidate, on the other?

I’m just wondering if this is a matter of psychology. To some, it may just seem to be “too much” to put a Mormon on the Supreme Court, even though he or she might be acceptable on the Court of Appeals. In the same manner, it seems tolerable to some that a Mormon be a U.S. Senator, but certainly not President of the United States.

Similary, is it acceptable to some (Al Mohler comes to mind) for a Mormon to be Vice President, but not President? The notion is illogical, of course, because the veep is “only a heartbeat away” from being President. But Mohler is concered that the election of a Mormon president might “mainstream” Mormonism. Presumably the election of a Mormon U.S. Senator, or the confirmation of a Mormon federal appeals court judge (but maybe not a Supreme Court justice) would not worry the Rev. Mohler quite so much.

Food for thought, no? Is the country ready for a Mormon veep, but not a Mormon president?

Please use the comments to discuss, we have turned off comment moderation for the day.
Sphere: Related Content

Posted in Questions | 8 Comments » | Print this post | Email This Post

Recently:

8 Responses to “Open Thread Question to Our Readers!”

ldsmom on 11 Mar 2008 at 7:02 am #

Either those that would really have a problem with an LDS VP don’t think McCain would ask Mitt to be the VP (never mind what the party is telling McCain), or there are too many other possible VP candidates for them to be concerned about Mitt right now. Or the evangelicals are still hoping Huckabee will be on the ticket, which won’t happen without McCain alienating most of the LDS vote in the West, such as California and Utah. (I know I will NOT vote for Huckabee under any circumstances, and his anti-mormon bigotry is just one of many reasons.) Or it may be a case of buyer’s remorse–the GOP let Independents and Democrats pick the GOP candidate with open primaries with the help of the evangelicals who wanted “one of their own” splitting the conservative vote. The GOP is stuck with McCain, and conservatives are left with “holding their nose” to vote for him, or elect a liberal Democrat as POTUS. McCain must choose very carefully, and soon, to unite the party, or an Obama or Clinton presidency will be inevitable. (My choice is Mitt Romney!)
kgbudge on 11 Mar 2008 at 8:27 am #

There is a pretty good chance, given McCain’s age and health, that his vice president will succeed to the Presidency. So I’m with ldsmom: If McCain choses Huckabee as his running mate, I’m writing in my vote this election.

It would be a very different story if Romney was the VP pick. I think it extraordinarily unlikely that that will happen, given that (a) Evangelists are a much bigger part of the electorate than Mormons; and (b) the antipathy between McCain and Romney is considerable. Too bad.

I think the reason so little ink is being spilled over Romney as VP is that everyone else thinks it is extraordinarily unlikely, too.
HaroldHutchison on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:08 pm #

I think too many of them think it won’t happen.

When it does… I expect the worst.
lizzie on 11 Mar 2008 at 12:15 pm #

I’m not sure it would be the best political move for Mitt. But, then he may never get a chance to get a good run for president if he doesn’t do it, with the likes of Huckabee around.

I’m not normally a vindictive person, but honestly I would love to see Mitt on the ticket as VP just because it would bug Huckabee so much. And then again, maybe it would be beneficial to Mitt as well. It’s hard to know. I don’t think it’s good to be on a losing ticket, but maybe Mitt could be an advantage.

If the democrat ticket has Obama, at least past polygamy won’t be an issue in the campaign for Mitt since Obama’s father is/was a polygamist–which fact strikes me as slightly hilarious.
SGS on 11 Mar 2008 at 1:24 pm #

I really think it is more of the matter that MSM is trying to ignore Mitt to the point that he just disappear. During the primary race, Mitt was grabbing taking so many opportunities where he got the attention — to name a few: when he raised the most in a day, when he had the most registered supporters, when he broke the record of raising in a quarter (all up to those times, which have been broken since). As such, the MSM tried its best to destroy Mitt. However, this time around, all of the talk about Mitt being on the ticket with McCain has come only from the conservative side, which still listen to the like of Rove and others. The liberals that are with MSM pretty much have ignored those politicans. The liberals are taking the advantage that not a word from McCain campaign about who he may pick has come out. They are trying their hardest to push guys on McCain, who are RINOs such as Charlie Crist, Tom Ridge, Tim Pawlenty, and even Rudy.

I will not leave it to them that they will continue being quiet about Mitt if he indeed is picked to be on McCain’s ticket. We will see the rush of anti-Mormon attacks from MSM as we have seen for the most of 2007.
ldsmom on 11 Mar 2008 at 2:06 pm #

Mitt Romney’s website is back up, with “Romney for President” at the bottom (no year). It is very detailed with his platform as POTUS. Also, Sean Hannity has heavily advertised his interview tonight with Mitt Romney, the first since Mitt’s speech at CPAC when he suspended his campaign. Maybe Mitt feels that McCain has no chance to win in November, and is already campaigning for 2012? Or is he getting back in the public eye as the VP candidate that conservatives can support, and then be the presumptive GOP nominee after McCain? I know I’ll be very interested to hear what he says tonight!
coltakashi on 11 Mar 2008 at 4:13 pm #

If McCain were to announce that he believes Romney is the best person to be his VP running mate, it would be an endorsement of Romney that would overcome some of the wariness people feel toward him because of religion. Ironically, it would be an endorsement by Romney as a conservative who feels McCain is an acceptable president.

Voters know that Romney as VP would not have significant decision making power, and would be subject to McCain as president. A Mormon VP is not significantly more objectionable than a Mormon HHS Secretary (Leavitt) or Secretary of Agriculture (Benson) or Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (George Romney). After Romney establishes a track record as a reasonable man and not a religious fanatic in the position of VP, the quantum of difference between being VP and being president will shrink. anyone who raises objections about the dangers of a Mormon in the White House will have difficulty explaining why being in the Oval Office is different, from a religious standpoint, to be in the VP office.

McCain and Romney supporters in the Southern primary states together generally outnumber Huckabee supporters. That joint appeal can help secure those states.

In the west, McCain should know that he is not going to get enthusiastic support in Utah and a number of other western states that supported Romney over McCain, unless he has Romney on the ticket. The interior West is the other wing of the GOP base, and ironically McCain, though from Arizona, needs Romney to secure the support of those states, where Romney’s support was greater than that for McCain and Huckabee combined. From a pure viewpoint of securing GOP voters, Romney is a much better choice than Huckabee.

Further, as the economic downturn gains more prominence, having Romney on his team will give McCain more credibility on economic issues, and he could effectively delegate to Romney interior issues related to the economy while McCain concentrates on national security and foreign policy. Romney could make McCain smarter on those issues, and McCain could educate Romney on military and international affairs. Romney is smart enough to be able to take advantage of the first class education available in the White House.

Again, it will take McCain a large dose of humility and intelligence to make a choice of Romney, a man who, just by being around, will potentially outshine McCain. My impression is that McCain has never let rational political considerations get in the way of his ego. So a Romney VP candidacy seems less likely than not, even though I think it would be a smart strategy.
Doug King on 11 Mar 2008 at 8:40 pm #

I would love to see Romney as VP but I don’t expect it to happen. I think there are too many hard feelings between McCain and Romney.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if McCain were to choose Huckabee as VP. I think Huckabee in many ways was never taken seriously by the press and therefore was never given the same degree of scrutiny as Romney. But that would change if he were McCain’s VP. If the MSM gave Huckabee the same hostile shakedown it did Romney, it might not only sink McCain but also Huckabee’s future career as a leader in the GOP. Anti-Mormonism and Romney’s perceived lack of authenticity are nothing compared to Huckabee’s ethics record and court appointments.