Sex, race, and religion: Speed bumps along the campaign trail
Presidential campaigns are filled with potential speed bumps, some merely shaking the dust off the hubcaps, others wrecking the suspension or even knocking off the wheels. Some appear unexpectedly, others are self-constructed.
Campaign 2012 for the field of Republicans hoping to unseat Barack Obama is no exception.
Mitt Romney has to deal with his Mormon religion 鈥� again 鈥� while the other candidates figure out how to respond to a prominent evangelical pastor鈥檚 slam against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Rick Perry (whose supporter was the minister who said Mormonism was 鈥渁 cult鈥� and 鈥渘ot 海角大神ity鈥�) still is trying to explain how and why his family鈥檚 hunting camp had a racially offensive name.
Herman Cain had to pronounce himself 鈥渉umble and contrite鈥� for statements he鈥檇 made about Islam and Muslims. (He had supported a Tennessee town鈥檚 effort to ban a mosque, had said Muslims 鈥渉ave an objective to convert all infidels or kill them,鈥� and had said he would think twice about naming a Muslim to his cabinet 鈥渂ecause terrorists are trying to kill us.鈥�)
All the GOP candidates seemed flat-footed when a debate audience booed a gay soldier who posed a question (via video from Iraq) about 鈥渄on鈥檛 ask, don鈥檛 tell.鈥�
Rick Santorum, who鈥檇 jumped right in to declare that he would reinstate the recently-repealed policy of banning openly-gay men and women from serving in the military, later told Fox News, 鈥淚 condemn the people who booed that gay soldier.鈥�
Herman Cain said he regretted not having spoken up on the soldier鈥檚 behalf "because of the controversy it has created and because of the different interpretations that it could have had.鈥�
On the hunting camp story 鈥� the camp bore a name that included the 鈥淣鈥� word when the Perry family acquired it in the 1980s 鈥� Cain condemned it as 鈥渏ust plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country,鈥� but then backed down a bit. Others were forced to comment as well, Santorum reluctantly suggesting that Perry might have used 鈥減oor judgment.鈥�
While the candidates would much rather discuss their economic policies and foreign policy talking points, things like Romney鈥檚 religion keep interfering. (Jon Huntsman is a Mormon too, but he鈥檚 so far from front-runner status as to be virtually invisible.)
On Sunday鈥檚 TV talk shows, everybody was asked about the controversial statement by evangelical leader Robert Jeffress at the 海角大神 Voter Summit of social conservatives over the weekend. After introducing Perry as a 鈥渁 born-again follower of Jesus Christ鈥� while suggesting that Romney was merely 鈥渁 good moral person,鈥� the Rev. Jeffress told reporters, 鈥淢ormonism is not 海角大神ity 鈥� Mormonism is a cult.鈥�
Some flatly disagreed with Jeffress, others waffled.
Santorum acknowledged that Romney 鈥渟ays he is a 海角大神.鈥�
"I believe that they believe they are 海角大神s," Cain said of Mormons.
"None of us should sit in judgment of somebody else's religion," said former House speaker Newt Gingrich, perhaps reminding people that he used to be a Southern Baptist before converting to Roman Catholicism after his third marriage.
The issue dogged Perry, who鈥檇 taken his campaign to Iowa. In essence, he rejected the Jeffress assertion about Romney without being personally critical of a Baptist minister with a megachurch in Dallas (which might not have been appreciated by many evangelicals).
"I don't think the Mormon Church is a cult," Perry told The Des Moines Register over the weekend. "People who endorse me or people who work for me, I respect their endorsement and their work, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I endorse all of their statements."
For Romney himself, of course, it鈥檚 a major distraction. According to a Pew Research Center poll this summer, 25 percent of all voters say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate if he or she were a Mormon.
In his first race for the presidency four years ago, Romney likened himself to Kennedy in 1960 regarding separation of church and state.
In what probably was his most important political speech at the time, Romney said, 鈥淟et me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions.鈥� He may have to dust off that speech and give it again.
The next Republican candidates debate is Tuesday in New Hampshire. You can expect these speed bump issues to come up there.
