Mitt Romney Jesus Talk

My very late take: Romney’s no John F. Kennedy.

Instead of making it less about religion, Romney made it more so. Instead of steering conservatives into a rational approach towards those who believe in Jesus (and those who don’t), Romney has left us with a speech that further divides and does nothing to address real issues facing the United States.

I could make a ton of references to Mormon meetings and similar, empty rhetoric. But I won’t. I’ll just say that Romney doesn’t appear to have the kind of big picture view that a leader who is going to move a country forward must have.

The U.S. has just endured six years of an evangelical, fundamentalist in the White House. It’s time for a change. I don’t think another deeply religious presidential candidate has a chance in 2008.

My views don’t represent the majority view in my state or my country.

See also:
Transcript of Romney’s speech is here.

Salt Lake Tribune commentary. They run these in the Sunday paper. This one written by a Mormon. Who(whom?) went to my high school and was mentioned here. Of note in the Salt Lake Tribune essay:

“It is odd how often certain groups try to portray our founding fathers as religious conservatives. Their guiding star was not Christianity, but Enlightenment secularism. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison would all be quite surprised by Romney’s statement that political liberty requires religion. Certainly, religious tolerance requires political liberty, but political liberty has often been the victim of religious conservatism.”