The Obession with Mitt Romney’s Religion
Oct 11th, 2007 by nick
Mitt Romney is frustrated. And for good reason: He’s running for president of the United States, and the news media seem to care more about his religion (Mormonism) than his accomplishments.
To be fair, it’s not just the media. According to poll results (links to a PDF file), many people are uncomfortable with the idea of a Mormon president. But how much of that discomfort is due to the incessant poll questions and media coverage of the topic? If the media weren’t so dogmatic about the issue, most people wouldn’t even know Romney was Mormon. And that’s the way it should be. The United States Constitution states, “…no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States” (Article VI, Section 3). A person’s religion should be irrelevant in his or her candidacy for president, or any other office.
I think this issue illustrates the bigger problem of the news “meta-analysis” trend. Instead of just reporting on the candidates’ positions, the media seem to be obsessed with speculative articles about things like whether Romney’s Mormonism will affect his ability to win the election, whether Barack Obama is too “out of touch” to connect with voters, etc. Also, the media seems to jump on a single idea for each candidate: Romney is Mormon, Fred Thompson is lazy, etc. Once they peg a candidate in that way, it seems difficult to break out of it.
For the record, I have no intention of voting for Mitt Romney (not that I can vote in a Republican primary anyway). But that’s not because he’s Mormon; it’s because I disagree with his politics.