Romney's Mormonism

Willard Milton Romney has a pretty steep hill to climb when he makes that address Thursday on his Mormon religion at the Bush Presidential Library in Texas. Bottom line for Romney: he has to put the Romeny brand on Mormonism and he has to get southern evangelicals to be OK with that.

Highlights from an interview with John Geer, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University and co-author of a survey assessing bias against Mormonism:

ON THE BIAS AGAINST MORMONISM

• Surveys show that only about half the population knows someone who is a Mormon.
  This is not surprising; only about 2-3% of the population is Mormon. This is a similar concentration to that of Jews. But a far greater percentage of the population knows a Jewish person. The difference is that, whereas Jews are concentrated on the east and west coasts, Mormons are largely concentrated in a few sparsely populated states. And this doesn't even begin to address the cultural crossover that is a result of the high profile Jewish people have traditionally had in the entertainment industry.
  
• Mormons are isolated
  A certain caricature of Mormonism has become ingrained: funny underwear, polygamy, a Bible-knockoff, etc.
  
• As a result, there is a strong bias against Mormonism.
  For example, among southern evangelicals (the key Republican constituency), bias against Mormoms rivals the bias against atheists.

ROMNEY'S CHALLENGE

• Romney needs to first address peoples' caricatures of Mormons.
  Surveys show that people who know Mitt Romney is a Mormon show far less bias [against Mormonism] than those who don't know he's a Mormon. By just being who he is, he's a kind of a role model, a spokesperson in some sense, for the Mormon religion. In other words, he needs to brand Mormonism with the Romney image.

COMPARING KENNEDY AND ROMNEY ON RELIGION

• Kennedy faced a lesser challenge.
  When Kennedy addressed his Catholicism and the biases against that, it was less of a hurdle because almost everybody knew Catholics.
  
• Romney needs to accomplish much more than Kennedy.
  Not everyone knows Mormons; therefore, Romney has to execute a delicate maneuver. He has to first let people know that he is a Mormon -- because people who know is one, have a higher opinion of Mormanism.

  Simultaneously, he he needs to illuminate key tenets of the Mormon religion is some way, e.g., polygamy is illegal, beliefs and policies towards blacks have changed, etc.

  Only by connecting his personal image with that of (a "benign") Mormonism can he then ask for people to be tolerant of a "religious" candidate.

COMPARING KENNEDY AND ROMNEY ON THE POLITICS OF RELIGION

• Kennedy's target audience.
  Kennedy's address to the Baptist ministers was really addressed to Democratic insiders. He knew that by going into the lion's den and addressing a body of Protestant clergymen on the issue of religious tolerance, he was demonstrating (to those with the real power) that he could be a mainstream candidate. Remember: Baptist ministers did not have the political power they have today.
  
• Romney's target audience.
  Flash forward 47 years: Protestant clergy (and lay people) have tremendous power within the Republican party. Romney is appealing to an audience that is powerful, and also very much biased against him.

Of course, this doesn't even begin to address the impact that Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist clergyman, is having on an extremely fluid Republican primary campaign.