Romney the Mormon

Mitt Romney will give an address in College Station, Tex., on Thursday in which he will openly discuss his Mormon faith and address concerns about how religion would affect his decision-making were he to become president. The address will be called Faith in America.

According to the NY Times, Mr. Romney made the decision to give the address about a week ago, although his advisers were against it. Also last week, Mike Huckabee began running a television advertisement that dubbed him a "Christian leader." The NY Times reports that many Republicans saw this as a jab at Romney. I don't really see how that's a jab at Romney; this guy must be really self-conscious about his faith.

But perhaps his concerns are for good reason: Nearly every poll result shows that the majority of Americans are unwilling to vote for a Mormon candidate.

Personally, I feel bad for Romney -- for once. As a Catholic, even one who wasn't alive when JFK ran for President, I can almost-kinda-sorta-so-very-distantly relate to Romney on this one. Faith shouldn't play a role in politics.

What I found especially interesting about this story (keep in mind that what's coming next is from Mormon advisers...and FOX news, I apologize) is that Mormon's "pride themselves on the separation of church and state." If that's true, I think Romney has a theoretical leg-up on JFK; concerns about the papacy's influence entering politics have historically dogged Catholics politicians.