Best Takedown of Mitt “Big Dig” Romney’s Piety Speech
Presumably you’ve heard or read Romney’s speech about religion today.
The speech drew inevitable comparisons to John F. Kennedy’s speech nearly a half-century ago in Houston, when he strolled directly into the lion’s den of Protestant religious opposition to his Roman Catholicism, and promised that he would uphold the separation of church and state before a gathering of Southern Baptist ministers. Mr. Romney alluded to that event himself.
Mr. Romney’s address today, however, differed significantly from that signal moment in recent history, which historians say was a turning point in the 1960 election. For one thing, Kennedy later took questions hurled at him from the ministers, many of them hostile, while Mr. Romney spoke before a friendly audience whose front row included four of his five sons and his wife, Ann, as well as many people affiliated with the campaign.
Like Kennedy, Mr. Romney pointed to his public record — his governorship of Massachusetts — as proof of his independence from his church’s hierarchy. He said he would abide by what Abraham Lincoln called America’s “political religion,” promising to “defend the rule of law and the Constitution.”
“When I place my hand on the bible and take the oath of office, that oath becomes my highest promise to God,” he said. “If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause and no one interest. A president must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States.
Mr. Romney took his audience on something of a journey through the country’s religious heritage that included mentions of everyone from Ann Hutchinson, the religious dissident banned from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s, to Brigham Young, who led persecuted Mormons to Utah in the 19th century.
“We do not insist on a single strain of religion,” he said. “Rather, we welcome our nation’s symphony of faith.”
RudePundit says “Oh No You Don’t” in his quaint and colorful way.
