Hotline Looks At The Mormon Question

The Hotline blog ponders the question of whether Gov. Mitt Romney's candidacy for president will be impeded because of his Mormon faith. The blog asks, "Will Mitt Romney be an Al Smith or a John Kennedy?" Hotline reflects on a recent poll showing that 35% of those polled said they would never vote for a Mormon presidential candidate:

The two groups most united in their opposition: liberal Democrats, of whom 40 percent were skittish, and more-than-once-a-week churchgoers, of whom a majority was opposed. (Note that these slices are taken from subsamples of a larger poll and are thus somewhat less precise).

Why?

It might be that Mormons are perceived as a fundamentally conservative denomination which scares modernist/secular Dems as much as their alleged heresy scares some evangelicals.

It might just be that the 2008 GOP presidential campaign will break down a barrier for Mormons much like Kennedy's 1960 presidential race did for Catholic candidates. While the poll would seem to suggest that Romney is going to have a real challenge with Christian fundamentalists, AI suspects that his supportive position on cultural issues will win out over any misgivings that these voters might have with Romney because he's a Mormon.