OK, you can tell that a campaign is getting desperate when they have to describe their own candidate in Messianic terms. You can tell that a campaign is completely clueless when they describe their non-Christian candidate in Messianic terms, especially when that religion has a (disputed) "White Horse" prophecy that says that a Mormon will ride in on a White Horse and take over the Presidency to save the Constitution. (http://www.mormonwiki.org/...)
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
(CBS News) Eric Fehrnstrom, senior adviser to Mitt Romney, said voters are most concerned about the economy, and he believes voters may see the presumptive GOP nominee as an "economic savior."
Fehrnstrom also predicts younger voters will support Mitt Romney because of his economic policies.
"I think they are going to see Mitt Romney as an economic savior of sorts," Fehrnstrom said in an interview with Hotsheet. "They are going to vote their interest, and there's no greater interest of a recent college graduate than getting employed and being employed in your chosen profession."
More past the icon of Kolob.
I have been arguing that it is not playing fair to mention Mitt Romney's religion. So it would be completely unfair at this point to quote:
Brethren and sisters, our friends wish to know our feelings towards the Government. I answer, they are first-rate, and we will prove it too, as you will see if you only live long enough, for that we shall live to prove it is certain; and when the Constitution of the United States hangs, as it were, upon a single thread, they will have to call for the "Mormon" Elders to save it from utter destruction; and they will step forth and do it.
I am of two minds whether to post this diary. I don't believe that elections should be religious wars, "they do it to us" notwithstanding. I firmly believe and have a small bit of evidence to support the idea that although Mormons are excited to have a serious presidential candidate, they would prefer that it not be Mitt Romney. (Think "Sarah Palin" in Temple Garb, ladies.) "Daddy, do Mormons really make their dogs ride on top of the car?" I think that the charmless but decent Harry Reid would have been a better way to introduce the rest of the nation to the religion.
However, when senior campaign staff indicate that they might be buying into this nonsense by describing their candidate in terms that are guarenteed to be offensive to Christians, you have to wonder if they have partaken of too many delicious and caffeine-free Mormon cookies. When you start describing your candidate in religious terms -- he is an "economic savior", then you have opened the door (as the lawyers say.)
It is hard to think of any other way of looking at it. It is not a statement that Romney has great policies to save the economy, or that he has a rolodex filled with the right people to call, or even that as a hedge fund manager who helped cause the economic meltdown he has the experience to fix it. It is simply an appeal to something, um, "special" about him that means when the Mormon Bishop rides in on the white horse we will all be "saved." (It also sounds a lot like hedge fund malarky where you are supposed to buy into the "genius", never mind the specifics.)
Or am I wrong here? Is this just a harmless statement like calling our adventure in Iraq a "Crusade", despite that top US generals at the time were fundamentalist Christians and the Crusade was all about killing Muslims. Is this just one of those campaign gaffes that you can chalk up to inexperience and caffeine deprivation, or is there something slightly more "off" about it? Does it indicate that Romney may have just a hint of a messiah complex, so he feels comfortable claiming that he was the one who really saved Detroit despite all evidence to the contrary?
Let me know.