Kenneth S. Baer: Romney better pray he can be Jimmy Carter
[Kenneth S. Baer, the author of "Reinventing Democrats: The Politics of Liberalism from Reagan to Clinton," is a founder and editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.]
On Thursday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is headed to Texas to deliver a speech on "Faith in America" in order to dispel reservations voters may have about electing a Mormon president.
While this clearly echoes the famous address that his fellow Bay Stater, John F. Kennedy, gave on Sept. 12, 1960, to the Greater Houston Ministerial Assn., Romney was adamant to reporters this week that "I'm not gonna be giving a JFK speech."
And he shouldn't.
Romney doesn't need to do a JFK. He needs to do a Jimmy Carter. After all, Kennedy ran away from his religion. Carter ran on it, using his religious belief -- he was the first "born again" president -- as a selling point. But as Carter's experience demonstrates, trying to be the candidate of faith, without being tied by voters to a particular faith, is a very hard course to navigate and must be done carefully.
The questions Romney is facing about his Mormonism pale in comparison to what Kennedy faced. Immediately after JFK's nomination, the Alabama and Texas Baptist conventions, the National Assn. of Evangelicals and the president of the Southern Baptist Convention all came out against the idea of a Catholic president. Then, on Sept. 7, 1960, a group of 150 conservative Protestant leaders issued a statement reading, "It is inconceivable that a Roman Catholic president would not be under extreme pressure by the hierarchy of his church to accede to its policies."
Five days later, Kennedy went to Houston to silence his critics.
In his speech, Kennedy made it clear that he not only believed in a high wall between church and state but that there also was a high wall between his private religious faith and his public action. "I do not speak for my church on public matters -- and the church does not speak for me," he said. Kennedy mentioned his opposition to two of Catholic America's biggest policy priorities: federal aid to parochial schools and the appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican. Kennedy wasn't asking voters to see his faith as a plus or a minus but as a nonissue. "I am not the Catholic candidate for president," he said. "I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic."
Kennedy's strategy worked, but it's not the right approach for Romney. Unlike JFK, Romney doesn't want to entirely change the subject. Appealing to social conservatives as a God-fearing, churchgoing family man is an essential part of his strategy to win over primary voters skeptical of his previous support for abortion rights and his Massachusetts mailing address. Rather, Romney has to turn the potential liability of his Mormonism into a selling point -- just as Carter (another one-term governor-turned-presidential candidate) did with his faith in 1976. ...
Read entire article at LAT
On Thursday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is headed to Texas to deliver a speech on "Faith in America" in order to dispel reservations voters may have about electing a Mormon president.
While this clearly echoes the famous address that his fellow Bay Stater, John F. Kennedy, gave on Sept. 12, 1960, to the Greater Houston Ministerial Assn., Romney was adamant to reporters this week that "I'm not gonna be giving a JFK speech."
And he shouldn't.
Romney doesn't need to do a JFK. He needs to do a Jimmy Carter. After all, Kennedy ran away from his religion. Carter ran on it, using his religious belief -- he was the first "born again" president -- as a selling point. But as Carter's experience demonstrates, trying to be the candidate of faith, without being tied by voters to a particular faith, is a very hard course to navigate and must be done carefully.
The questions Romney is facing about his Mormonism pale in comparison to what Kennedy faced. Immediately after JFK's nomination, the Alabama and Texas Baptist conventions, the National Assn. of Evangelicals and the president of the Southern Baptist Convention all came out against the idea of a Catholic president. Then, on Sept. 7, 1960, a group of 150 conservative Protestant leaders issued a statement reading, "It is inconceivable that a Roman Catholic president would not be under extreme pressure by the hierarchy of his church to accede to its policies."
Five days later, Kennedy went to Houston to silence his critics.
In his speech, Kennedy made it clear that he not only believed in a high wall between church and state but that there also was a high wall between his private religious faith and his public action. "I do not speak for my church on public matters -- and the church does not speak for me," he said. Kennedy mentioned his opposition to two of Catholic America's biggest policy priorities: federal aid to parochial schools and the appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican. Kennedy wasn't asking voters to see his faith as a plus or a minus but as a nonissue. "I am not the Catholic candidate for president," he said. "I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic."
Kennedy's strategy worked, but it's not the right approach for Romney. Unlike JFK, Romney doesn't want to entirely change the subject. Appealing to social conservatives as a God-fearing, churchgoing family man is an essential part of his strategy to win over primary voters skeptical of his previous support for abortion rights and his Massachusetts mailing address. Rather, Romney has to turn the potential liability of his Mormonism into a selling point -- just as Carter (another one-term governor-turned-presidential candidate) did with his faith in 1976. ...