On the brighter side

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Matt Evans has an excellent and positive take on how hard Iowa was for Romney and even understandable for Evangelicals to vote as they did:

The anti-Mormon vote would be in that 56-11% gap (and the gap in the “religious views mattered somewhat” group CNN didn’t report), but of course not all of that gap would be anti-Mormon — some of it would be that evangelicals simply like, identify, and understand Huckabee’s religious views, and other things being equal, voters prefer the familiar. In this sense being Mormon is a bigger obstacle than being black or female — voters are more familiar with blacks and females and don’t find being black or female strange.

A Jehovah’s Witness would face the same issues running for Utah governor. Identity and unfamiliarity would be larger obstacles than would religious discrimination. Then imagine the JW’s challenge among the San Pete County GOP (Utah’s Iowa equivalent) if he had been a pro-choice mayor of Salt Lake (Utah’s Massachusetts equivalent), and was on record claiming to better support gay rights than Rocky Anderson (Utah’s Teddy Kennedy equivalent). Placing second in a crowded field of respectable candidates would be a gleeming silver medal.