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ABC’s Matthew Dowd On This Week: Mitt Romney Has Bigger Problems Than His Mormon Faith

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On This Week today, Christiane Amanpour and the panel discussed the issue of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism and whether it would be an issue for him to deal with in the Republican race for the presidency heading into primary season, or if he had too many other political problems to deal with to prioritize his personal faith.

Romney’s faith was brought into the limelight over the weekend due to controversial statements made by pastor Robert Jeffries, who introduced Rick Perry at the Values Voters Summit on Friday, alleging that Mormonism is a “cult,” a comment clearly intended to reflect badly on Mitt Romney. Perry immediately distanced himself from those comments, but George Will felt the controversy would “be an issue with the Republican voters,” particularly Southern Republicans.

Matthew Dowd didn’t dwell long on the comments, but did suggest out of all the issues Mitt Romney has to deal with this election cycle, his religion isn’t exactly at the top of the list.

“Mitt Romney’s problem isn’t that he’s a Mormon, and Mitt Romney’s problem isn’t the Evangelical Church. Mitt Romney’s problem isn’t about a cult, it’s about a core. Most Republican voters do not think he’s authentic. The perception is that this is a guy who doesn’t have a core, doesn’t have a solid core, unrelated to his religion, unrelated to that. Fundamentally his problem is not going to be related to this Mormon issue, but related to the issue of ‘Can we trust you?’”

Donna Brazile set her sights on the other candidate involved in the controversy, and argued that as is the case with Romney, Rick Perry has several major issues with the Republican party he has to reconcile. She predicted the whole hunting camp controversy would continue to be a thorn in his side until he addresses it publicly. However, she believed Romney would be able to handle the issue of his faith well, given that he addressed it in the last presidential cycle and it was barely an issue for voters.

Watch the video below, courtesy of ABC News:

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  • Anonymous

    A little advice to the rank and file Republicans you may not want to cannibalize your own so early in the campaign.  

  • Re-Elect Obama 2012

    George Will felt the controversy would “be an issue with the Republican voters,” particularly Southern Republicans.

    Yeah, those Southern Republicans are a piece of work.

  • Re-Elect Obama 2012

    Why trust a guy(Romney) who supported abortion and passed a healtcare bill that was the inspiration for Obamacare?

    Why trust a guy(Perry) who gives free shit to illegals?

  • Anonymous

    The religious question is still clearly a huge issue with the Republicans and a very difficult one to dance around for all of them.

    There was a similar issue for JFK with his Catholicism in the early stages of his candidacy for Presidential Nomination. It will be interesting to see where this question will be taken.

  • http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

    Romney does have some bigger problems!! Such as “RomneyCare” and his past stance on supporting abortion rights!!

  • Cianook

    mitt the mormon is NOT our own, mitt the mormon is a closeted democrat! 

  • Cianook

    And we trust a toll with a re-elect obama handle? I think youre a momron who wants republicans to support mitt the mormon.

    Conservative Republicans wont support lds/romney ticket because hell stab us in the back when he gets into office. we will fall in line behind any other candidate and the boy in the white house goes down to a humiliating electoral defeat like jimmy carter!

    smoke on that! 

  • Anonymous

    ABC’s Matthew Dowd On This Week: Mitt Romney Has Bigger Problems Than His Mormon Faith

    For one, he’ll have to have that stupid rug with the sayings embroidered on it dragged out of the Oval Office .

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dronetek-Bulk-Vanderhuge/100000918732763 Dronetek Bulk Vanderhuge

    Why is his faith an issue, when Obama’s “black liberation theology” meant nothing? 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Skinner/100000598231323 Brian Skinner

    Mitt is a favorite of my Mormon ward but I support Herman Cain.

  • Anonymous

    Because Perry is the only person in the field with real world experience dealing with the border. Lots of details on Perry’s record here: http://rickperryreport.com/faq

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    Willard has an unusual religious problem. If he were Chritstian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Atheist, Agonostic, &c, no problem. Willard is a heretic, however. The problem with Mormonism is not within the religion itself, but that it insists on calling itself Christian. If it’s Christian, it’s heretical. That has to be a problem for all Christians. We are all called to be on guard against heresy.

  • Teobreezy

    Is Romney the perfect candidate?  No.  Are ANY of them? No – its no different than your next door neighbor and you share an alliance to the same political party….however, they think social issues are not as important as others and you think they are.  You both want the same basics, but have different levels of importance.  Bottom line is that Mitt can win the presidency and be BETTER than what we have now, PERIOD!  He stays in for 8 years and turns the Oval Office over to Chris Christie or some other WOW candidate.  Republicans can slowly undo the mess this administration has made, and quite frankly, I don’t care who does it, just as long as it is undone!

  • take my advice

    Face it, gNOpig clowns, once again you have a field of weak arse contestants and you are going to end up like last presidential election, with a stinker of the highest grade.

    Ron Paul – fruitcake

    Herman Cain – yeah right!

    Rick Santorum – eeeeeewh

    Michele Bachmann – bat shit crazy
    Rick Perry – gun totting racist
    Mitt Romney – not a real xtian

    Newt Gingrich – LOL!
    Jon Huntsman – who?

  • DoesThisOffendYou

    “The problem with Mormonism is not within the religion itself, but that it insists on calling itself Christian.”
    Well stated, I’ll give you that.

    Yet as a liberal, why do you care? Trying to stir up a fight in the Republican Party?

    I’ll say that I’m not a big fan of Romney.  But if Leedog and you don’t like Romney – I may have to give him another look.  LOL

  • The Real Royal Emperor

    Nope. My political interest is purely academic. As a liberal, I would prefer Tollbooth to get the nomination.

    My concern is the misrepresentation of my faith, and faith which does not include Mormons.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XFQ35HZUMBTF3HTJ567N3VTEE4 BornDaily

    Mormonism is important to Mormons. Whereas religion is winding down for most people, Mormons are still trying to act like their beliefs are, and should be the center of their lives. Nobody thought Romney would win last time, so nobody cared. Now that he is the front runner we are going to find all about what Mormonism is. The picture is not going to be pretty. Mormons say “we aren’t an off-shoot of Christianity, you people are. Your Christianity is wrong and you should believe our nut case prophet from the 19th century.” They are growing like crazy, trying to take over the direction of religion in this country. Evangelicals are not going to like this picture. The more they know, the less support they will give him.

    Commentators who think this is not going to be an issue don’t realize how important Evangelicals are to the Republican party and how important their own crazy “Christ nailed to a cross saving us from Adam and Eve’s sin” story is to them and how much they will hate the Mormons’ crazy story. When the election comes everybody will be sick of Mormonism and Romney and he will go down in flames.

  • ExPat ExLawyer

    Mediate Staff:  That clip was kinda skimpy.  Maybe it’s just me, but I’d have appreciated a longer one.  I live in Cabo and don’t get ABC, so I count on Mediate as my go to highlights reel for the Sunday talk shows.

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  • Anonymous

    You’ll be singing a different tune on 11/6/12, buddy.

  • Rex the Wonder God

    Mitt gives RINOs a bad name.

  • Rex the Wonder God

    That’s not a rug, it’s his undershirt. The extra fabric sewn over the nip-nips is so he doesn’t get unduly aroused as he contemplates how he’s going to shaft the nation once he’s in office.

  • Rex the Wonder God

    Yeah, it meant something. That something got litigated in the 2008 election. The irony is that if Mitt gets the nod, Obama will have the upper hand in the stupid argument in 2012.

    Republicans can only solve this problem by nominating Jesus Christ. He’s not available, but if he was running, his work as a community organizer would be a big problem – the bigger problem would be with his being a Jew. Altho, I suspect a lot of voters would overlook that in favor of that strong Nordic look, but he’d still need to get a haircut, and produce a birth certificate.

  • Rex the Wonder God

    I love how the Republican party has been able to sustain this b.s. about maybe nominating a black candidate. Southern white Baptists would vote Romney and go on a steady diet of toxic shitburgers before that ever happened. 

  • Rex the Wonder God

    Chris is going to die of a massive coronary before that little dream could ever come true.

    Mitt winning means a one term presidency, because it means two terms of Obamneycare, and after 8 years of that crap Americans will want to change. 

  • Rex the Wonder God

    Thing of it is, you look like a buffoon with that take. No one knows who will win next year. 

  • Bob Uda

    Pastor Robert Jeffries is to Rick Perry as Reverend Jeremiah Wright is to Barack Obama.  Nuff said.

  • Anonymous

    Many
    pastors do what pastor Robert Jeffress did, open mouth and insert foot.
    Remember the pastor who was having a “Burn the Koran party”. There
    are others who told of the exact day the world was coming to an end, it’s no
    wonder many are accused of belonging to cults. I believe the Bible and any
    other good book from Heaven should have written on the front of it “This
    Book is for practicing not for preaching”, this should apply to all
    preachers, this way everyone could sit in front of a mirror and educate one’s
    own self. People always see themselves to be on a higher pedestal than those
    around them. This seems to be excessive today with those who have been blessed
    with wealth and power. We have heard Power Corrupts. Those in a position of
    power are continually proving the accusation to be true. There punishment
    should be to practice humility.

  • Anonymous

    Many
    pastors do what pastor Robert Jeffress did, open mouth and insert foot.
    Remember the pastor who was having a “Burn the Koran party”. There
    are others who told of the exact day the world was coming to an end, it’s no
    wonder many are accused of belonging to cults. I believe the Bible and any
    other good book from Heaven should have written on the front of it “This
    Book is for practicing not for preaching”, this should apply to all
    preachers, this way everyone could sit in front of a mirror and educate one’s
    own self. People always see themselves to be on a higher pedestal than those
    around them. This seems to be excessive today with those who have been blessed
    with wealth and power. We have heard Power Corrupts. Those in a position of
    power are continually proving the accusation to be true. There punishment
    should be to practice humility.

  • Anonymous

    The biggest
    problems I have with Christians are: To start with, I am a Christian and proud
    of it. However; Christian throughout the Unites States vote for President
    usually to support their one issue, which they are probably hung up on, be it
    birth control, abortion, marriage of different sexes, execution of a prisoner,
    or some other issue probably less damming to society in general than a more
    important one, which could have been chosen by selected group of experts who
    are more knowledgeable on these subjects, other vote for a candidate because of
    his or her race, creed or financial stranding in the world. It is a sin the way
    some people flock to, suck up to and vote for people with money, even if they
    have no moral standards to live by. I think many Christian look the other way
    when the potential for money is involved. I have heard it said, everyone can be
    bought, if the price it right. I do not think that is true. Peter sold Christ
    for 12 pieces of Silver but he was only one of twelve who did that. There were
    11 others who did not do that. Peter is not the one we want to emulate. We
    Christian today want to emulate the other 11 Apostles, especially during these confusing
    political disagreements which are hard to tell the lies from the truths.

  • Anonymous

    Actually, the true heresy is that christians in these latter days have the gall (ignorance?) to keep insisting that THEY, not Mormons, are the real christians, in spite of the no-brainer fact that “christians” today have no resemblance whatsoever to the Church of Jesus Christ as it is outlined, and quite specifically, in the New Testament.  For those who actually study and know what is in the Bible, they know that the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are in perfect alignment and sync and harmony, down to the details! with every doctrine of the New Testament church.  They are the same church.

    The problem “christians” have is they mistakenly (blindly?) rely on a bogus definition of what defines a christian, penned by a couple of guys, not prophets, who decided you were a christian if you embraced their Westminster Confession of Faith which they wrote in 1555 A.D. and if you did not, you were not.  lol  Not much to rely on when you consider how important this matter may be with God. Interestingly, God himself revealed just how you can know a christian from a non-christian in the New Testament….it is by their fruits aka actions aka works.  ”Christians” don’t seem to like what God has said about it (read 1 John 2:3-5 to find out who knows God….it describes every active Mormon you know – wink -wink).  They prefer their bogus creeds written by men to what God has revealed through His prophets and in His word.  The fact is, Mormons are biblically true christians, while latter day “christians” are more like mainstream Judaism when Christ walked the earth…relying on their old traditions, while rejecting prophets of God, apostle, revelation, priesthood keys of authority, and all the rest.

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