Another hat in the ring

Mitt Romney. Y'all ever heard of him? If you are politically savvy, you
know he served a term as governor of Massachusetts. Well, today he
announced he was running for president. Mitt. Is that a nickname? Is
it short for Mitchell? Or is his name really Mitt? Catcher's mitt, oven
mitt, and now Mitt Romney. But I am going overboard here about his
name - moving on to his record. A native of Michigan (where his father
George served 3 terms as governor), he served one term as Massachu-
setts governor. As a Republican, it was quite a feat to win that election
in an overly Democratic state. He rose to fame originally when he
served as president of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic organizing
committee, which prior to his service, had been mired in controversy
and financial scandal and mismanagement. Romney was able to
reorganize the situation, culminating in a successful Winter Games.
Salt Lake City also serves as a backdrop to what may be the most
controversial issue about Romney's candidacy - his religion. Mitt is
a Mormon (he even graduated from Brigham Young University, the
famed Mormon institution), and we all know that about 80-90% of
all Mormons are in or from Utah. There are a great deal of misunder-
standings about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; most
conservative evangelical Christians, a major Republican voting base,
consider Mormons a non-Christian religious cult. While I don't
consider the Mormons a cult, I would definitely classify them as
non-mainstream. Thus Mitt will need to clearly communicate to the
conservatives what Mormonism is and in the values Mormons share
with other religious denominations. It will be an uphill battle, but
it should be a fascinating one. I am just waiting for Pat Robertson,
Jerry Falwell, Pat Buchanan, and Rush Limbaugh to say something
ridiculous about Mitt, sticking their foots in their mouths in the
process. Maybe we should just tell those fanatical maniacs to stick
a sock in it, or better yet, a mitt?