Mitt Romney is Dropping Out of the Presidential Race

[_Who Knows]

A poll by KSL shows that out of the 90% who voted for Romney in Utah, only 2% will now switch their vote to Huck. 30% will go to Mccain, and 25% will go to Obama.

Just thought that was interesting for those LDS crying "anti-mormonism" is the reason romney lost the race. These are the same ones who refuse to vote for Huck, and will even switch parties before voting for him. Hypocrites.

[_skippy the dead]

Interesting Newsweek article on how Mormons saw Romney, particularly when it came to how he downplayed or disavowed parts of the faith:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/109478?from=rss

I was surprised at his statement that God hasn't spoken to anybody since Moses. I guess I missed that one. So much for the Joseph Smith story.

[_Mercury]

Just wondering, but can anyone tell me why McCain so thoroughly rebounded from absolutely nothing?

Why did people go from not liking him to all of a sudden loving him? What changed?

This is a stretch but could it be the countries disdain for Rush Limbaugh? Why did Rush have a hard on for Romney yet he still lost even making it to RepubloCon in Minneapolis? Is the base of the republican party sick of Right Wing Talk Radio?

Let's not kid ourselves. Rush Limbaugh was at the peak of his success when Clinton was in office. I wouldn't be surprised if he votes for Hillary, and is secretly hoping she wins.

Hmm, could Rush have purposefully pulled for the three legged inbred mutt at the dog track on purpose?

[_Trevor]

Just thought that was interesting for those LDS crying "anti-mormonism" is the reason romney lost the race. These are the same ones who refuse to vote for Huck, and will even switch parties before voting for him. Hypocrites.

Hypocrites? Let's see, Chuckleberry used anti-Mormon and anti-Catholic rhetoric in his campaign to motivate his base (an apt term). Why should either religious group support this bigot? Hopefully, he will disappear from presidential politics like a fart in the wind.

[_Who Knows]

Just thought that was interesting for those LDS crying "anti-mormonism" is the reason romney lost the race. These are the same ones who refuse to vote for Huck, and will even switch parties before voting for him. Hypocrites.

Hypocrites? Let's see, Chuckleberry used anti-Mormon and anti-Catholic rhetoric in his campaign to motivate his base (an apt term). Why should either religious group support this bigot? Hopefully, he will disappear from presidential politics like a fart in the wind.

Fine, whatever. I refuse to vote for romney because he's bigoted towards non christians. woop-dee-freakin-doo.

[_Boaz & Lidia]

Just thought that was interesting for those LDS crying "anti-mormonism" is the reason romney lost the race. These are the same ones who refuse to vote for Huck, and will even switch parties before voting for him. Hypocrites.

Hypocrites? Let's see, Chuckleberry used anti-Mormon and anti-Catholic rhetoric in his campaign to motivate his base (an apt term). Why should either religious group support this bigot? Hopefully, he will disappear from presidential politics like a fart in the wind.

Fine, whatever. I refuse to vote for romney because he's bigoted towards non christians. woop-dee-freakin-doo.

And being a Mormon he is against Christians as well.

[_DonBradley]

Trevor,

It's clear that seeing the anti-Mormon rhetoric, the way it can be used, and the effect it can have on something as momentous as the US presidential election is a particularly disturbing and upsetting thing to you, despite your own loss of belief in Mormonism. It shows, in a stark way, that certain types of prejudice are alive, well, and basically accepted. That most Americans accept such prejudice as normal is clear from the fact that most of them express it. During the Gore-Lieberman campaign several years ago survey research showed (as I recall) more than half of Americans "deeply concerned" that Lieberman didn't accept Jesus as the son of God. This is troubling. While Lieberman's policy views, values, and experience were obviously relevant, his sharing, or not sharing, Christian faith in Jesus should have been irrelevant. Likewise, whether Mitt Romney, and Mormons generally, are Christian in the view of Evangelicals should be irrelevant to decisions of whether he would govern the country wisely, morally, and effectively. Whether one expects to find Romney or Lieberman in heaven should have little to do with how well one might see either leading the nation.

That said, I don't see this election as a time to lament the national prejudices, nor would I have seen the 2000 election as such a time. The fact is that despite concerns over Lieberman's Judaism, he and Al Gore were, respectively, the choice of a plurality of the voters for the offices of vice president and president. This was a significant step forward. When in US history had it happened before?

And the present election provides far more reason for hope that significant inroads are being made against prejudice. The four top candidates in the presidential primaries this election cycle are, respectively, female, black, Mormon, and, for lack of a better term, elderly! Each of them has a kind of "minority" status that is a problem for some portion of the electorate. Yet they have been the front runners.

And, frankly, while this may sound odd, the fifth top-running candidate was also in a maligned group. Prejudice against religious fundamentalists runs quite high in the US, as discussed frequently and at great length by Rodney Stark. This, if anything, is my area of prejudice. So I was surprised at finding Mike Huckabee likable and (in my perception) sincerely caring. Shame on me! I'd obviously bought into a misguided stereotype, which I need to further root out.

And millions of true blue (true red?) conservatives have found themselves voting for a Mormon as the candidate whose views and values seem best to represent their own. This happened less in the South, no doubt in part because of anti-Mormonism, but no doubt also, and probably more fully, because Huckabee pro-Evangelicalism, and regionalism: Mike Huckabee is one of the Southern Baptists' (and Southerner's) own. It is no more surprising that Southern Baptists would vote for him than that Utahns would vote for Romney. They're voting based on both their values and their group identification, and probably on those far more than on feeling against those who are different.

Be that as it may, this primary election is notable, and will go down in history, not for bigotry, but for its opposite. While we have not arrived by any means arrived at an unprejudiced society, this election is, if nothing else, a testament to how far we've coming in shrinking the intensity of prejudice and the size of its domain.

The glass, in this case, is 90% full.

Don

[_Trevor]

Fine, whatever. I refuse to vote for romney because he's bigoted towards non christians. woop-dee-freakin-doo.

I respect that, and I never planned on voting for Romney. I am against voting according to stupid prejudices, and those who play on stupid prejudices to get results. Clearly, theists display bigotry against atheists with impunity. It is not like I loved Romney for any of this. I simply dislike Chucklebee even more.

[_Trevor]

And being a Mormon he is against Christians as well.

Gag. Pretty lame B&L, pretty lame.

[_Trevor]

And, frankly, while this may sound odd, the fifth top-running candidate was also in a maligned group. Prejudice against religious fundamentalists runs quite high in the US, as discussed frequently and at great length by Rodney Stark. This, if anything, is my area of prejudice. So I was surprised at finding Mike Huckabee likable and (in my perception) sincerely caring. Shame on me! I'd obviously bought into a misguided stereotype, which I need to further root out.

I am glad you are so enthusiastic. It speaks well of you that you have chosen, overall, to be so optimistic. And I agree that a lot of exciting things are happening out there.

Having said that, I think your position on the evangelicals is a little simplistic. The evangelicals are maligned by moderates and liberals because of their power as the core of the Religious Right, which, as a whole, has played a very significant role in politics over the past few decades. I credit your anticipated dislike of Huckabee with being far more complex than "this guy doesn't hold the same religious positions I do," which I think is precisely the view Huckabee's sly, venomous rhetoric was aimed at stoking. You understand the deleterious and divisive role of the Religious Right in American politics. A generous percentage of southern, evangelical voters don't like Mitt for reasons that are either purely theological, or just not that reflective.

Finally, given the power of the Religious Right in America, I wouldn't consider the evangelicals an underdog in the way you seem to think they are. Therefore, I don't see Huckabee as the kind of outsider that Mitt's Mormonism made him.