Mitt Romney Still Has To Battle To Defend His Faith (UPDATED)
The following statement is not coming from someone who is a Mitt Romney supporter:
There truly is an element of the 1960 Presidential campaign when Senator John F. Kennedy had to battle stereotypes and downright bigotry about his Catholicism in what former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is now going through in having to explain and defend his faith — to Republicans. (And no, with a name like “Gandelman” I am not a Mormon).
Via Huffington Post, we find the You Tube below which shows Romney appearing on a popular conservative Des Moines radio talk show. The first part of the MUST VIEW 20 minute segment is a pro-forma interview…but then talk show host Jan Mickelson gets on and will not get off the topic of Romney’s religion.
Romney deals with it on the air — but watch it to the end and see how the conversation builds and becomes testier and testier off the air. The off-the-air Romney comes off quite well — and he has a good point.
More info on this incident is on The Politico.
But you can’t help but watch this and feel that its a pity that a Presidential candidate can’t be grilled and stand and fall on his position and the record (and Romney has plenty of flip-flops for critics to focus on). It’s instructive that the host is insisting on talking about Romney’s religion on and off the air and is also telling Romney he doesn’t understand his own religion.
Despite what some insinuated in 1960, JFK didn’t get in office and “take orders from the Pope.” And, in listening to Romney, it’s clear that if he got in he would follow his own convictions (whatever they may be at any given moment).
Watch the whole video. It’s sad that in 21st-century America he has to battle to get out his position on policy stances on issues while deflecting constant incoming rhetorical missiles about his faith:
UPDATE: Two differing on this via Americablog.
Guest poster Pam Spaulding:
When you run a campaign taking positions based on personal religious faith (such as his flip-flopping on abortion and marriage equality), you have to be ready to defend those positions, both to those who would support you precisely because they believe in a faith-based campaign, and those who want faith kept out of government.
And then John Aravosis:
I’d go even farther than Pam. Romney isn’t running on positions based on his faith – everyone of faith has positions that are in part based on their faith, whether they know it or not. Romney has intentionally changed every single position he has on everything in order to suck up to religious right Republicans. Romney is running as a religious right Republican. His faith isn’t incidental, he’s given it the number one slot on his ticket. For Romney to now pretend that his faith is somehow off-limits, and under attack, has a deny-me-three-times quality to it that should give every Christian pause.
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8 Responses to “Mitt Romney Still Has To Battle To Defend His Faith (UPDATED)”
Being not at Romney fan, either (wow! What a shock, right?
), I nontheless think the interviewer’s focus on the religion was unfair and actually wasting precious airtime that could have been used to clear a clearer picture of the candidate. However, Romney should have expected this, and his shuffling to avoid a clear answers left a devastating expression. Why didn’t he simply declare that he has an independent mind, and his ‘dissent’ on this topic should show voters that he isn’t a poodle for Mormon elders. JFK had to face questions on his religion, too, but he was much more convincing in his responses. Looks like Romney is missing the stature and spine needed for the most important job in the US.
“with a name like “Gandelman†I am not a Mormon”
Yup, needless to say, Joe! Sure sounds Amish to me.
Btw, what happened to Jeb Koogler’s story? Withdrawn? Why? Imho there was nothing wrong with that…
Or are there serious server issues at TMV right now???
Gray: For the Democratic voters, dissent from the leaders of one’s religion is a badge of honor but not so on the GOP side. That’s what makes this situation particularly difficult because the GOP candidates have to prove to their own base that they are ‘genuine’ in their faith while appropriately distancing themselves from the accusations that they are interested in promoting theocracy.
Good point, C! Will be entertaining to watch ‘em doing this dance on the thin rope.
Mitt Romney has run a campaign based on moral values and cleaning up the “filth” of our culture. He bases those values on his religious views, appeals to the religious right for votes, asserts that it’s important that a “person of faith” be elected president.
Yet we aren’t allowed to ask him what his religion says about issues of governance?
It doesn’t matter to me what Romney’s religion requires of him as a moral person.
It does matter what Romney’s religion requires of me.
His mormonship aside, Mitt is still a loon. I truly mean it, he is seriously out there, leaving those of us from earth to ponder what the hell it is he is trying to do. His sycophantic gestures to the shrinking Republican base don’t help. Couple this with some rather hypocritical past business dealings and it seems evident that he should really be shipped off to a private retreat where he can do limited harm to the American people.
The novelty of Mormonism as the faith of a candidate would have brought extra scrutiny to Romney’s religion reagrdless of what he did or did not do to pander to the Republican base. Part of this is not his doing; it is the invebitable result of being a first, like JFK’s Catholicism.
The other part of the scrutiny is his own doing. He chose to accent his religiosity. When a Republican forgoes playing the religion card, that Republican will earn extra points in my personal ratings record.