ShareThisBy THOMAS BURR
Salt Lake Tribune
Friday, October 12, 2007
Snagging the cover of a well-read magazine is a big bump for any presidential candidate, but when Mitt Romney found his chiseled face on Newsweek's cover, he was less than thrilled.
Romney took issue with the headline, "A Mormon's Journey," and the theme of the story covering nearly eight pages and focusing squarely on his LDS faith.
"It is puzzling that when Newsweek looks at me what you mostly see is a Mormon," Romney responded in a letter to the editor this week. "I would have thought that more important to my potential presidency would be my record as a governor, 25-year business leader, Olympic CEO, father, husband -- and American."
While Romney may want to focus on those other factors, his faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints still is percolating in the contest. Months shy of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, concern about Romney's Mormon religion isn't going away, as some strategists had predicted.
Last December, Romney's pollster, Jan van Lohuizen, said at a Washington forum that people deeply involved in politics -- campaign officials, journalists and activists -- would be sick of the question by August.
"We're already down to underwear," van Lohuizen said, referring to a Web posting by a Time.com columnist about Mormon garments. "The question will wear itself out."
Sen. John McCain's strategist, Mark McKinnon, agreed.
"The Mormon issue is way overstated," McKinnon said. "In the end, it won't be much of an issue."
Fast forward to October 2007 and those forecasts appear well off-target. Polls still show a sizable number of voters wary about voting for a Mormon, news reports still mention Romney's faith and despite 10 months of formal campaigning -- and his oft-repeated line that he is not running for pastor-in-chief -- Romney is still facing questions about his religion.
Dan Bartlett, a close friend and former adviser of President Bush's, told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently that Romney's purported flip-flops on issues, like abortion, will provide a cover for those who are uneasy voting for a Mormon.
"The Mormon issue is a real problem in the South, it's a real problem in other parts of the country," Bartlett said in a speech that was reported by the Washington Post. "But people are not going to say it. People are not going to step out and say, 'I have a problem with Romney because he's Mormon.' What they're going to say is he's a flip-flopper."
Romney, a Michigan-born businessman who led the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, is trying to refocus questions about his religion to conversations about the shared values of his faith and others.
"I am an American running for president, not a Mormon running for president," he wrote in his letter to Newsweek, channeling a line from John Fitzgerald Kennedy's famous speech about his Catholic beliefs.
Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney and a descendent of Mormons herself, defended Romney in an interview recently against what she called "virulently anti-Mormon" attacks.
"I have been really astounded by the ferocity of some of the statements that people I would not expect to make have made about Mormonism," Lynne Cheney told the Washington Examiner.
Rich Hanley, director of graduate journalism and e-media programs at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, says the Mormon issue won't be going away soon. Faith is such an integral part of the GOP base, Romney won't be able to avoid talking about his religion.
"It will be an issue up to the primaries, up to the convention, until he's the Republican nominee," Hanley says. "When you get to the real nitty-gritty of a presidential campaign, everything's on the table, everything can be put into play."
Thomas Burr can be reached at tburr(at)sltrib.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com
