Letters to the Editor
-
Mr. Romney, why do you want to be the President of the United States of America?
Campaigns and political writers are constantly telling the public what each candidate believes or what they are against. Can we just have the answer to one question: why do you want to be the President?
It seems to me that none of the candidates, on either side, have told us what they would actually DO if elected. There is so much focus on who they are and what they believe, we do not ever think or ask what they will do.
Even when debating public officials - attorney generals, supreme court justices, etc - the media and public seem to put more emphasis on character and intentions then action.
Please, Mr. Romney, tell us with action words not feelings: why do you want to be President of the United States?
-
Teenage Girl Reporters
You sound like a teenage girl who decides to "go all the way" because when the teenage boy said, "I think I really love you", his chin quivered a little and his eyes got really moist.
Are you a grown man? Aren't you a reporter? Can Mitt seduce anyone or what? If a man proclaimed faith in a religion that required a strict belief in something so basic as that the world is flat for example, do you think that that belief in the flatness of the world would effect his decision making ability when it came to, oh let's say, the FAA and Commander-in-Chief? Did Mitt say he would not accept orders from or be influenced by the ruling Mormon elders who meet in their windowless temples as JFK said he would not accept orders from the Pope? Why didn't he? Because given the other things he said that wasn't necessary? Really? That's like the Washington Post editor saying that the Post didn't have to say the runors of Obama being Muslim didn't require the Post to say they were outright lies because "to me, a rumor is false."
Look at the mormon media machine from the 1960's to today. From the Osmonds to that speech today. They are great at television and controlling their followers. You are either a sucker for great T.V. or a mormon. My eyes got moist and my chin quivered when I said that you just couldn't see it.
I expected a whole lot more from Salon than this Fab Teen review.
DanielB
-
Missionary work
One point that's worth keeping in mind is that nearly all Mormons do missionary work, usually for 2 years, usually right after high school and before college. Highlighting the fact that he has done this is a little like pointing out that he's worked in government.
I don't think it's here or there regarding whether his religious beliefs should be a factor in his campaign, it's just that while it sounds novel to people who don't know about the mormon church it would only be remarkable if he hadn't gone on a mission.
-
Bilderbergers in Sheeps Clothing..!
It's not Mormonism that will guide and rule Romney's Presidency were he to get in, it's The Bilderberg Group and Tri-Lateral Commission who's Pontiff is David Rockefeller..
Wake the F@#k up America.. !
Corporatism is the only faith all of these Republicans actually share and practice in reality..!
-
Romney's faith will not cause him to lose in Iowa
Romney will lose in Iowa, but not because he is a Mormon. Rather, he will lose because he is a "political machine." This is the same reason why Obama is running neck-to-neck with Clinton in Iowa.
-
Romney loves what??
Sorry, but you give way to much credit to this politician and make some grand assumptions about his intentions and the inner workings of his mind and heart.
What this man loves is entirely a mystery, and to say that freedom "requires" religion is absolutely insane. There is nothing linking the two and in fact religion by its very nature is counter to freedom as a concept.
So while the two may co-exist superficially, they are not compatible at all except in the minds of those who regularly practice double-think and unintentional irony.
Romney is a politician and upper-crust business type who loves power for sure, but whether he loves anything else...who knows. He is certainly capable of contriving a tight chin and moist eyes for crying out loud.
I won't say a word about the tenets of Mormonism.
"god" help us if this creep gets elected.
-
But for the moment, Romney can lose those voters....
He lost this voter forever, with his insistence that democracy "needs" religion. Not that I would have ever voted for him, anyway, but I am sure a lot more motivated now to campaign against him.
-
It is to weep.
"The nation that he believes in, which is different from the nation that he lives in."
Sadly, I've been living in that same nation without millions of dollars at my disposal for years. Being rich and powerful, I don't wonder that he's been able to keep his composure for so long.
It is a sad day if he loses Iowa because of his religion. There is no doubt about it. But he *chose* to be a Republican. If religious freedom is really more important to him than power for rich people, he should switch parties.
-
watering eyes
Don't ever fool yourself: Mormons learn to cry during emotional moments - it's called "being overcome with the Spirit". (Remember, the LDS church has a lay clergy - the sermons are assigned to members of the congregation. It's an unwritten rule that no church talk or testimony is complete without a few tears from the speaker or the congregation. The tougher the guy, the more poignant the moment when the eyes well-up, the chin quivers, the voice cracks and he has to so he can regain his composure. The longer the pause, the quieter the congregation becomes. Really good speakers can subdue even the noisiest chapel to the point where you can hear a pin drop. Despite being a political machine, you can bet, Mitt knows how to use the waterworks.
-
The Closest Thing to Insanity
That piece about Mitt Romney is the closest thing to insanity that I've read in Salon.
Being the President is not about making someone's Christmas wish come true. It's not about making an abstract statement about how religion shouldn't matter. It matters on the most pragmatic level about what that person is going to do-- because on the most primal level, that person has a well-defined responsibility for everyone in this nation.
What malarkey Mitt Romney believes in matters a lot-- especially if he advertises it as something that moves his decision-making. The nonsense that he and the other evangelical Christians believe in, as far as the compounded millenialism that all those cults share, affects whether we're going to jump-start a nuclear war in the Middle East to build the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, or water policy in the West, where the sunny Mormon disposition has driven growth in Las Vegas to vastly over-exploit the region's water supply.
I'm at wit's end on what to say to get people to wake up and realize that politics, and the decisions that flow from it matters. It's unbelievably dispiriting to see that someone like Scherer can't really believe that it does.