E Pluribus Unum

Forty years ago, George Romney ran for president. He was the governor of my state, Michigan, and was considered to be a moderate (translation: Rockefeller Republican). He was becoming increasingly anti-war. Back then, there wasn't much coverage of the fact that he was a Mormon, although polling was done on the question.

The Gallup Poll in April, 1967, asked, "If your party nominated a generally well qualified man for president and he happened to be a Mormon, would you vote for him?" 75 percent said yes, and 17 percent said no, while the rest either did not know or declined to answer.

That was then, this is now. Mitt Romney, his son, former governor of Massachusetts, is running for president. While he governed as a moderate, he is running as a hard-right conservative. And on the issue of his Mormonism, polling shows that things have, well, changed:

In March of this year, the CBS News/New York Times Poll asked: "Do you think most people would vote for a presidential candidate who is a Mormon, or not?" A majority of 54 percent said voters would not. FOX News in February posed the question, "Do you think the United States is ready to elect . . . a Mormon president or not?" A plurality of 48 percent said no while only 40 percent said yes.

And it's even worse than it sounds: an alarmingly high percentage of white Evangelicals -- the bedrock members of today's Republican base (Rockefeller now being a faded memory) said they would be "less likely" to vote for a Mormon.

Could it be because they don't consider Mormons to be Christians?

The Church of Latter Day Saints gives scriptural authority to the Book of Mormon, not a part of the standard Old or New Testament. Unlike most traditional Christian denominations, Mormons reject the Trinity and the belief that Jesus was the son of God. Finally, Mormons contend that God was once a man.

Is America Are white Evangelicals ready to elect vote for a non-Christian president? Or, more to the point, is America are white Evangelicals ready to elect a member of a religious cult to the Oval Office?

Sounds like Romney will have an uphill climb.

UPDATE: Speaking of Romney, Paul Krugman watched the Republican debate and has this to say:

In Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney completely misrepresented how we ended up in Iraq. Later, Mike Huckabee mistakenly claimed that it was Ronald Reagan’s birthday. Guess which remark The Washington Post identified as the 'gaffe of the night'? Folks, this is serious. If early campaign reporting is any guide, the bad media habits that helped install the worst president ever in the White House haven’t changed a bit.