Opaque Lucidity

The Catch With Mitt

MItt Romney officially announced his candidacy for the 2008 Presidential election today. He is socially conservative, although he has not always been. This is a problem for some people, but I'm willing to overlook it. After all, very few people go through life without re-examining their closely held beliefs. I don't care if he was pro-abortion; the point is that he's not now.

The problem with Romney is the fact that he is a Mormon. I would like to think that we live in a nation where a man's religion is not a deciding factor for the voting public, but we don't. In the same way that John F. Kennedy's Catholicism was a turn-off to many Americans in 1960, so Mormonism will be in 2008. In fact, it will be worse for two reasons.

First, Mormonism has relatively few adherents. Kennedy at least had tens of millions of Catholics behind him; Romney will have the population of Utah and a few small conclaves elsewhere in the country.

Second, the media has already begun to treat Mormons as cultists. It's not above the surface yet, but the questions they are asking should tell you all you need to know. If he wins the nomination, Mormonism will soon be portrayed as the new Satanic Fascism.

No one currently running on the Republican side of the aisle can beat Senators Clinton or Obama; after all, they have the power of the mainstream media behind them. The RNC needs to find a young, traditional conservative to outwit Clinton and out-"JFK" Obama. But don't look for it to happen.