by Frank James
Mitt Romney’s “Faith in America” speech yesterday generally received good reviews. Whether it does the trick and helps him close the deal with religious conservatives, particularly evangelical Christians remains to be seen.
But there was a line in the speech, uttered without any apparen irony by Romney, that may have as much, if not more to do with why he’s suspect in the eyes of many conservatives then his Mormonism.
It was the line in the speech meant to be the bravest, an echo of Protestant reformer Martin Luther’s famous: “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen” when confronted by the Catholic church for his heresies.
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Romney said:
“Some believe that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they’re right, so be it. But I think they underestimate the American people. Americans do not respect believers of convenience. Americans tire of those who would jettison their beliefs, even to gain the world.”
Jettisoning beliefs to gain the world. That is precisely the sense many voters have of Romney that may prove to be a problem bigger than faith. His change of views on abortion and gay marriage have, according to reporting by a number of political reporters, struck many religious conservatives, and not only them, as opportunistic.
It is the weakness that other Republicans, like Sen. John McCain and Fred Thompson, have repeatedly pummeled him on because they know its a concern in a lot of voters’ minds and have sought to exploit.
Romney has taken the Lincolnesque position that he has adopted new views as soon as they, to his mind, were shown to be true views.
True, a politician should be able to change his mind. But that doesn’t mean it won’t raise questions for voters about the candidate and whether he is a pandering flip flopper.
If Romney fails to eventually win his party’s presidential nomination it may have as much, if not more, to do with this aspect of his candidacy than his faith.