2008 campaign

Anxious to hear how the speech goes? I admit I am a bit. I wonder if this speech will be more consequential for the Church than for Mitt Romney. And yet, Romney can go nowhere near Salt Lake to ask for help. He’s on his own.

In case you’re worried that he’s not taking the speech seriously you can download high quality images of the governor making edits to his speech. I guess his campaign wants us to rest assured, he’s taking it seriously.

While we’re waiting, Get Religion even has a countdown clock to the BIG SPEECH the media has been breathlessly waiting for. Christmas comes a little early.

Voters in New Hampshire and Iowa have reported getting phone calls purporting to be research polls, but instead are asking questions emphasizing Mitt Romney as a Mormon.  And not in a nice way: push polls.  And they’re coming from a Utah-based firm!

An individual in Manchester, Iowa, contacted me on Wednesday night saying he received a call with information about McCain’s military service and anti-spending record.

Then there were “lots of negatives on Romney,” said the recepient of the call in an e-mail, including mentions of his “flip-flops,” hiring illegal immigrants as landscapers and extensive discussion of Mormonism.

“Statements were on baptizing the dead, the Book of Mormon being on the level of the Bible, and one about equating it to a cult,” said the Iowan, deeming them “common criticisms of Mormonism.”

The AP adds a little more anti-mormon details:

Among the questions was whether a resident knew that Romney was a Mormon, that he received military deferments when he served as a Mormon missionary in France, that his five sons did not serve in the military, that Romney’s faith did not accept blacks as bishops into the 1970s and that Mormons believe the Book of Mormon is superior to the Bible.

Strangely, the “research firm” used to do these calls is based in Utah. According to J.A. Miles, it has call centers in Provo and Rexburg and the firm’s founder and chairman is on the advisory board at BYU’s Marriott School Center for Entrepreneurship.

The McCain and Giuliani campaigns have strongly denied their involvement (it’s doubtful Huckabee has money to do something like this). Since it would be so foolish for a campaign to be directly involved, I bet some third-party group is trying to help out its favorite candidate.

Last week, John McCain was quick to repudiate his mother’s pointed comments on Mitt Romney and “the Mormons of Salt Lake”:

“Mormons are great people and the fact that Mitt Romney is a Mormon should play no role whatsoever in people’s decision,” McCain said. 

But, Jay Nordingler observes a pattern that I have noticed especially coming from the McCain camp (thanks, Article VI Blog).

In future weeks — especially if Romney remains strong in the polls — we should expect to hear statements from the other candidates, along the lines of, “I don’t think the governor’s Mormonism should be an issue in this race.” I think of what John Edwards did, in the vice-presidential debate of 2004: He talked about the Cheneys’ gay daughter (he used the word “lesbian”). (At least he didn’t say “lezbo.”)

Question: Was Edwards simply and innocently making a point about gay marriage? Or was he reminding Americans that the Cheneys had a gay daughter?

And when Republican candidates say, “I don’t think the governor’s Mormonism should be an issue in this race,” will they be making a genuine statement about religion and politics — or reminding people that Romney is Mormon?

I’ve long suspected this as a clever way to focus on the negative implications of a Mormon candiate while appearing otherwise.

The McCain campaign seems to do this especially.  I remember this from this past April:

Stevens, a McCain media adviser, picked up on what McInturff said, seemingly sounding a sympathetic note about what may be a problem for Romney’s campaign. “Mitt Romney is not saying elect me because I’m Mormon and I think that is an important distinction,” he said.

But Castellanos didn’t see the McCain team’s comments as sympathetic to his candidate. He saw them as a backhanded way to put the issue of Romney’s religion into play. “I appreciate the defense today just as much as I appreciate the attacks by the other folks,” he said icily. “It’s awfully nice to be able to whack an opponent and defend him in the same breath.”

Advisers for both campaigns agreed that the media has contributed to this problem by highlighting polls that show, for example, that a third of voters say they are less likely to vote for a candidate who happens to be a Mormon. But Castellanos would not let got of his contention that Romney’s rivals were feeding that story line by decrying it.

Castellanos said he found it interesting that the campaigns of the two best-known GOP candidates appeared anxious to define the lesser-known Romney at least in part through his religion, saying they knew well the political implications of focusing on that topic.

I guess this beats the more direct and ugly attacks that a McCain surrogate tried last year.

“Let me keep reminding you, this man’s strange religion should not be the issue!“

A Mormon President is a documentary claiming that anti-Mormon prejudice and the long, dark shadow of Joseph Smith is holding back Mitt Romney’s campaign.  I don’t think it’s necessarily a pro-Mitt film but it’s by a non-LDS Mormon historian Adam Christing.

Go to www.amormonpresident.com to see the trailer. It will debut in Salt Lake City on December 12 at Brewvies (not your typical LDS venue).

More at If This Be Treason.

It’s been interesting this year to watch the Church and Mitt Romney reach out to Christians for their own reasons and in their own ways.

Gov. Romney has been actively courting GOP-influential evangelicals as a key to his nomination.  Rather than directly speaking on his religion (as so many pundits are demanding he do), he has continuously emphasized that it has informed his “values” which are similar to the rest of religious conservatives.

“The values of my faith are much like, or are identical to, the values of other faiths that have a Judeo-Christian philosophical background,” he said at a campaign event in New Hampshire this month. “They’re American values, if you will.”

In contrast, the Church has renewed its efforts to define itself as a Christian church while emphasizing its peculiar differences.  President Hinckley and Elder Holland’s General Conference talks rejected the creedal beliefs of mainstream Christianity based on what Holland called “post–New Testament Christian history”:

So any criticism that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not hold the contemporary Christian view of God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost is not a comment about our commitment to Christ but rather a recognition (accurate, I might add) that our view of the Godhead breaks with post–New Testament Christian history and returns to the doctrine taught by Jesus Himself.

Last week the Church followed up these talks with a press release emphasizing that “As people learn more about Latter-day Saint beliefs, they may see some distinct differences and yet find some unexpected common ground.”

Governor Romney glosses over his religious differences (smartly I think) while the Church unapologetically emphasizes its differences, and yet they are both seeking to establish that Mormonism (or at least a Mormon) has a place in the public square.  (Just to keep piling on, Harry Reid’s comments last week were not helpful in this effort)

There will always be evangelical clods who will feel they have a divine mandate to harass the Church and protest General Conference, but politically, I think there has been evidence that progress has been made.

• President Hinckley met with the late Jerry Falwell earlier this year where they discussed opposing against same-sex marriage efforts in California.
• Evangelical leaders seem to be reluctantly realizing that Romney is their best hope for representing their values and some have started to endorse him (whether he should accept some of them is another matter).

The Church has made it clear we don’t want to agree on everything theologically.  Or politically.  Just some respect and an acknowledgement that Mormons don’t have horns would be nice.  When Bob Jones University can join the 21st century and endorse a Mormon for president, I think there’s reason for hope.  

Christianity Today interviews Mitt Romney as a Mormon running for president and appealing to evangelicals.

While the doctrines of my church are quite different from evangelical Christian doctrines, the values of our faiths are very much the same. I don’t know of a doctrinal difference that would suggest a different policy outcome or that would suggest that a President of my faith would lead in a different direction than President Bush, an evangelical Christian.

And this note on the late Rev. Falwell’s recent visit with President Hinckley was interesting:

[S]everal months ago, not long before he died, I had the occasion of having the Rev. Jerry Falwell at our home. He said that when he was getting ready to oppose same-sex marriage in California, he met with the president of my church in Salt Lake City, and they agreed to work together in a campaign in California. He said, “Far be it from me to suggest that we don’t have the same values and the same objectives.”

“When Republicans act like Democrats, America loses.”  Mitt Romney’s newest TV spot addresses GOP corruption and loss of principles.  This needs to be addressed directly and hopefully it will be a campaign winner.  The party has much to atone for and to pretend otherwise is just to prolong the disconnect with its base and its traditionally winning message.  

Some like it but some see it as GOP bashing.  If the party wants to regain credibility it needs to demonstrate that it can police itself.  Otherwise, the party’s unwillingness will lead to more elections like last year.  And deservedly so.

Same sex marriage is the gift that keeps on giving to Mitt Romney. First, it helped establish Gov. Romney as a cultural conservative when Massachusetts courts forced the issue.  Now, Iowa of all places follows suit just in time for Romney to distinguish himself from the better known GOP competition in a radio ad.