Maybe he's trying to break the curse of the Massachusetts candidate running for president

Posted at 11:43 AM on October 16, 2007 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

As Mitt Romney's political views continue to "evolve" (these used to be called "flip flopping" when Democrats did it), the predominant question that is going to take center stage at the conclusion of his evolution is whether Romney's stated positions were dishonest then as governor of the Bay State, or now as a candidate for president.

The NY Times today profiles how Romney has been cozying up to the evangelicals, who are distrustful of his Mormonism. Oh, and there's that abortion thing to explain.

That'll be a neat trick, and one that might be easier to explain than this one. Times notes that Romney's spending reports show $4,312 in July and August on ... get this, Bostonians... tickets to the New York Yankees. The Times points out it could've been to watch the Red Sox play.

And it could be the case, except that the Red Sox didn't play in New York in July, and played only three games in August.

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Comments (1)

The leaders of the evangelical political movement are not so much distrustful of Romney's Mormonism as it is of whether they will lose credibility with their voters by endorsing a Mormon.

For decades now, media evangelists have been portraying the Mormon/LDS faith as a dangerous heresy that leads people away from the true Jesus Christ. They believe that Mormons do not worship the real Jesus Christ, and they have been drumming that into their broadcast audiences since media evangelism became popular.

It would be a big gamble for evangelical leaders like James Dobson, Tim LaHaye et al to instruct their faithful audiences to vote for a devout LDS candidate.

The Council for National Policy is the organization that Romney was courting this month. It consists of most of the key figures in the evangelical political world, plus nationally influential Republican and conservative leaders. They are active in national, state and local elections (members helped to organize GOTV drives here in MN for Rep. Bachmann.) They are apparently set on stopping a Giuliani nomination, unimpressed by Fred Thompson's performance so far, and leary of getting behind a Mormon for reasons state above.

But Romney may be able to pull it off. He's not only courting the CNP--spending money like water and facing tough poll numbers from Giuliani, he's going over the heads of the voters and straight to conservative opinion makers instead. He's already made the cover of the National Review; this week he's addressing the anti-taxes Club for Growth via satellite, etc etc.

The GOP rank-and-file may prefer Giuliani, but the GOP and its conservative media are hierarchical. If Romney wins them over, it may not matter in the end what the rank-and-file want; the evangelical politicals, the leaders of American conservatism, and their media will simply instruct them to want Romney, not Giuliani.

Posted by Bill Prendergast | October 16, 2007 10:52 PM

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