I find myself approaching the Mitt Romney campaign with mixed feelings. On the one hand, certainly it would be nice to see a Mormon do well (as I am also a Mormon).
On the other hand Romney is a conservative Republican and I am a moderately liberal Democrat. And it seems clear that he is willing to switch his positions willy nilly to get votes. He had an opinion on Abortion which he changed. He claims it was just in response to growth; but it's easy enough to note that he had one opinion when he was trying to get the governorship of a very liberal state, and another when he was running for the Republican primary. Just recently he tried to claim he had been a lifelong hunter on the basis of two hunting trips - one at age 11 and another recently. I certainly don't want him to win the presidency. I'd much rather see Clinton or Edwards or Obama in the white house than that particular Mormon.
Still it's clear that our shared religion is going to play a role in the upcoming campaign. Dr. Charles Dunn has written an article on the parallels between his campaign and President Kennedy's. Specifically how Kennedy won, running as the first Catholic President and how Romney can win running as the first Mormon President.
While there are some interesting parallels, there are some things that aren't the same as well. Specifically Kennedy was bringing something new to America. Now in retrospect it might have largely been rhetorical, but he created an image of change, of hope. Romney, on the other hand, is bringing us the same failed policies of the Bush Administration. If you like how President Bush has run this country, and not many of you do, you'll love what Romney's going to do. It's the same damn thing, more or less.
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