SORRY, NO GOLD FOR BISHOP ROMNEY IN THE FINAL EVENT

Romney's big investment in Iowa turns bitter

Evangelicals' distrust of Mormons likely factored in Huckabee victory

By Thomas Burr

The Salt Lake Tribune

01/04/2008

DES MOINES - Bested in Iowa by rival Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney headed

to New Hampshire late Thursday hoping to look beyond the sharp setback

aided by a large evangelical turnout.

"Well, we won the silver," Romney, the former head of the 2002

Winter Games in Salt Lake City, told a crowd of more than 1,000

supporters who had hoped for a victory party.

But, Romney added, like anyone who doesn't win at their first

Olympics, "you come back and win the gold in the final event."

Romney's campaign pointed to initial results showing large crowds

at caucuses in strong evangelical areas as part of their loss to

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister. But they camp stayed away from

blaming the loss on Romney's Mormon faith, which polls have shown may

be a concern with evangelical voters, some of whom who view the LDS

Church as heretical.

"I would disagree with any assessment that it was about

denomination," campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said when asked whether

Romney's Mormon faith affected the race. "What you have is a lot of

voters who are evangelicals who identified with someone who is also an

evangelical."

But, he quickly added, "I don't know if it made the difference."

Rising from single digits, Romney led the Hawkeye State for most

of the year before losing ground to Huckabee, a former Arkansas

governor.

Romney outspent Huckabee 20-1 in the state, according to some

estimates, yet the advertisements, ground structure and piles of

mailers couldn't help him at the caucuses, the first test of the

presidential primary election process.

On Fox News, pollster/commentator Frank Luntz said Romney made a

"big mistake" by going negative against Huckabee. Focus groups used by

Luntz indicated that Iowa Republicans were turned off by the blizzard

of attack ads from the Romney campaign and found Huckabee the "most

human of all the candidates."

Huckabee never mentioned Romney by name in his victory speech but

declared the results show "People really are more important that the

purse."

Huckabee appealed to the large evangelical base of the state

through television commercials highlighting him as a Christian leader

and at one point even asked a reporter whether Mormons believe Jesus

and Satan are brothers. He later apologized.

Some 45 percent of Huckabee's vote came from those who described

themselves as "born again," according to news media entrance polls,

and Huckabee won 55 percent of those people who said religion mattered

a "great deal." Romney only got 19 percent of the born-again votes and

only 12 percent of those who said they cared a great deal about

religion.

"It is not clear that all of the Huckabee votes were anti-Mormon,

but it is plausible that Romney's faith posed a problem for him," says

John Green, senior fellow at the Pew Center for Religion and Public

Life.

Sen. Bob Bennett, a Utah Republican and fellow Mormon, said Iowa

is fertile territory for evangelical voters on the Republican side and

Huckabee benefited from it.

"There's obviously some anti-Mormonism in this," Bennett said.

"You see the kind of mailings that are being made, [and] some of the

television people that are attacking the church, but I'd like to

believe it is more a pro-Baptist [choice] than it is anti-Mormon."

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has worked to overcome

the hurdle polls showed with voters wary of casting a ballot for a

candidate who belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day

Saints.

In early December, he addressed the issue in a much-hyped speech,

saying that while his faith - and its shared values with other

religions - informs who he is as a person, the LDS Church would not

dictate his actions if elected president.

Many observers say it's too early to tell how much concerns about

his faith affected the race in Iowa.

"It's never clear when [voters] say they won't vote for him,

whether it's the Mormonism, or whether they can't identify with him as

a middle class person, or they're concerned about his positions on

things," says Michael Cromartie, director of the evangelicals in civic

life program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. "It's all too

early. We can't base everything on Iowa."

Richard Bushman, professor emeritus of history at Columbia

University, says a big Romney loss could be a bad sign.

"That could mean the intensive campaign, the big speech, the

constant refrain of being a sensible Christian is simple just not

winning over evangelicals," Bushman says. But he adds, there are

"other things in play. Even so, it would be a sign that the whole

operation has not yielded fruit."

Iowans seemed aware of Romney's religion when asked at caucus

sites Thursday night.

"I have thought about it," Romney supporter and Catholic Luke Feld

said at the Waukee Middle School. "But it doesn't bother me. I don't

hold it against him at all."

Whether Romney's faith hurt him in Iowa or not, the LDS Church

helped boost Romney to this stage.

Romney's name was one of three submitted by a church leader during

a search for a new leader to rescue the scandal-ridden Games in 1999.

Then-Gov. Mike Leavitt, also a Mormon, asked a number of community

leaders, including LDS Church apostle and Olympic liaison Robert D.

Hales, "for a short list of names - people who could possibly do what

was needed to re-establish confidence and handle the extraordinary

challenge of staging an Olympic Games," the church said in a written

response in 2001.

Romney was one of three people Hales recommended.

Romney is credited with turning around the debt-loaded Games into

a successful world event, an act he then parlayed into the

Massachusetts governorship, and eventually, his presidential bid.

http://www.truthandgrace.com/Mormon.htm

"Concerned" <summeroverwinter@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:4c8dea3f-0bed-

Why do folks seem to be so afraid of him and feel the need to try to

diminish his candidacy?

--

The very first thing they teach freshmen

politicians is that a politician's main job

is to make people worry about something

so the government can fix it and tax it.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

http://www.reason.com/

http://www.ij.org

JC

JC wrote:

>

> "Concerned" <summeroverwinter@yahoo.com> wrote in message

> news:4c8dea3f-0bed-

>

> Why do folks seem to be so afraid of him and feel the need to try to

> diminish his candidacy?

because he is indistinguishable from Billary for starters. a total

phoney.

most of us actually fear him and try to lie to ourselves that he is not

the likely nominee.

that slick talking chisel chinned say anything fake fuck will most like

be the nominee - since most folks are fools and vote for any smuck who

say waht they want to hear, regardless of how plastic the asshole is.

--

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freedoms of future generations.

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be, I honor all of the Bill of Rights for all mankind.