We're all sick of looking at Mitt Romney, so here's a
dour looking picture of Sen. Orrin Hatch instead.
You're welcome.
Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who is still in some hot water with his Utah base because he was maybe once seen compromising with someone that one time, way back in the last century, says Mitt Romney's religion is definitely going to play a role in the general election. He thinks the Obama campaign
is going to attack him for it:
Speaking to a group of GOP delegates at a campaign stop Tuesday, the six-term Republican incumbent warned, "You watch, they're going to throw the Mormon church at him like you can't believe." [...]
"You can find some pretty outlandish statements by some of our early leaders that we've all had to live with from time to time, but he handles it very well and I think he's going to do a good job," Hatch told the gathering of delegates in this town about 20 minutes north of Salt Lake City.
I don't see it happening, myself. I'm not arguing that Obama's campaign team are all such noble and upstanding people that they would never attack someone's religion in the way that Republicans have, for four effing solid years, attacked every little thing about Barack Obama's perceived religion, or lack of religion, or secret religion; I'm just saying I see no particular value in the attack. But again, I'm not Republican. I don't really spend my time parsing out which religious sects and subsects are more batshit crazy than their immediate neighbors, but that does appear to be the primary hobby of a great number of Americans. (As a kid, I was into stamp collecting, which involved just as much judgmentalism and soaking of things in water, but not nearly as much scorn for random neighbors and passers-by. Boy howdy, if I had only known what I was missing.) So as I said, I'm supremely unqualified to render a verdict on this one.
Republicans, for their part, have actually been pretty consistent in avoiding attacks on Romney for his Mormonism. I'll admit I was surprised by this, too, for the reasons I just mentioned, and because it took some unbelievable effort on the parts of the Santorum, Gingrich and other camps. Discussing other people's religions has been a staple of the campaign trail, mostly centering on why the religions that say birth control is naughty and poor people can get bent are naturally superior and more American than ones that say, well, anything else.
As far as predictions go, then, I would be very, very surprised if Mitt's Mormonism gets much play on either side. It's not in the interest of Republicans to point it out, because it pisses off their base, and it's not in the interest of Democrats to point it out, because the vast majority of Democrats really don't give a damn. I'm not sure if Hatch really thinks it's going to be an issue, or is just blowing smoke in an effort to gain a little sympathy for Mitt. You know, during this brief 10-minute respite before the GOP once again starts telling us what all the right religious beliefs are, and how everyone else is un-American for thinking otherwise. Sigh.