Tuesday, November 13, 2007

MITT ROMNEY

If Romney's The Nominee, How Many Lefties Will Sound Like Redford?

A while back, one of my Romney guys said that in a general election showdown between his man and Hillary Clinton, there are two "landmine" moments. One is if Romney (or any male candidate, for that matter) says or does anything that sounds the slightest bit sexist.

As we've seen, facing tough questioning from moderators and criticism from rivals was enough to get Team Hillary to play "they're piling on to a woman!" card already.

The second "landmine" moment would be, he suggested, if she says or does anything that appears critical of Romney's faith. Looking at Robert Redford's comments about Mormons from earlier today, I wonder if Romney vs. Hillary could be a matchup that would turn out quite well for the GOP.

We know that while most Democratic officeholders have relatively careful tongues, many parts of the Democratic machine shoot their mouths off so regularly that you can set your clock to them. We know foot-in-mouth disease plagues Hollywood stars, a significant number of lefty bloggers, some liberal columnists and talking heads, consultants, and even low-level officials.

I suspect that if Romney were to get the nomination, we would hear a great deal from those folks about just what's wrong with "those" Mormons, and the rhetoric would be ugly enough to match the seething disdain, and irrational bigotry lurking in the hearts of the intemperate. Somebody ought to set up a pool to guess which figure makes the first horrific statement painting all Mormons with a broad brush: Rosie O'Donnell? Bill Maher? Michael Moore? Keith Olbermann? Frank Rich?

I suspect that those who have a visceral loathing of both Christianity and those who wear their faith on their sleeve would be unable to control themselves, and would lash out throughout the general election. And a good number of Christian voters, tempted to vote for the Democrats, would turn their backs on a party whose elites relentlessly sneer at religious faith.

(I should note, I've had one Mormon reader write in and say he thought Redford's comments weren't that bad. I still think it's unthinkable that Redford would speak the same way about Jews, Muslims, or other faiths.)

UPDATE: One reader asks whether Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, will factor in this. I think the vast majority of liberals who have a beef with Mormons, and/or Christians in general, either A) don't realize that Reid is also a Mormon or B) don't care, because he's "one of theirs." These folks could actually argue that they don't actually hate Mormons or Christians; they hate Mormons or Christians who disagree with them. So long as Harry Reid is declaring "the war is lost" or calling Clarence Thomas an "embarrassment", he's one Mormon they find just dandy.

11/13 10:32 AMShare