Mitt's Mormon Defense

During the long Republican primary season, the highest-profile attack on Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith came in October during the Values Voters Summit in Washington, when the pastor who introduced Rick Perry to the assembly, Robert Jeffress of Dallas’s First Baptist Church, told reporters that “born-again followers of Christ should always prefer a competent Christian” for the presidency and dismissed Mormonism as a pseudo-Christian “cult.”

The polls suggested that Jeffress spoke for at least some Republican primary voters. The fallout from his comments, though, turned out to be a boon for Romney. Their bald sectarianism gave the front-runner a chance to cry “bigotry”; they prompted a chorus of denunciations from prominent conservatives; and they forced Perry’s campaign on the defensive when it was fumbling already. The way the controversy played out suggested that while Romney’s Latter Day Saint affiliation might be an electoral liability, any direct attempt to raise the issue was likely to backfire on his political opponents.