Romney, evangelicals and the media

Here's another interesting take on how Mitt Romney's faith plays into the election and how the media are struggling in knowing how to handle the issues involved.

...I think a lot of people seem confused that voters might have one set of views about Mormonism and a completely separate set of views about Romney. Let me spell this out. A voter could be Mormon but support, say, Dennis Kucinich for President. A voter could think Mormonism was the most false religion ever and be the chair of the Alabama Republicans for Romney campaign. A Methodist voter could generally like Mormons and Mormonism but not like Romney. I could go on but the point seems so obvious.

This failure to understand the extremely common situation of a voter opposing a candidate’s religion while supporting a candidate plagues much coverage of the Romney campaign. Now don’t get me wrong: many voters have indicated they’d be less likely to vote for a candidate who is Mormon. But it’s nowhere near a majority. Even among white evangelicals, only about one-third express problems with voting for a Mormon candidate.

The media needs to quickly learn how to handle these issues as it appears Romney is around to stay.