Do you have an evangelical problem

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Brian Lamb: I have got an article from The Washington Monthly of September of 2005, and the headline on it is ”Mitt Romney’s Evangelical Problem.” I’m going to read this because you are going to deal with this one way or the other at some point or the media, as you know, will get -- if they don’t feel they are getting the answer, they will just keep banging away.

She writes, Amy Sullivan writes: ”But moderate Republicans aren’t the ones who could derail a Romney candidacy. His obstacle is the evangelical base, a voting bloc that now makes up 30 percent of the Republican electorate and that wields particular influence in primary states like South Carolina and Virginia.”

”Just as it is hard to overestimate the importance of evangelicalism in the modern Republican Party, it’s nearly impossible to overemphasize the problems evangelicals have with Mormonism. Evangelicals don’t have the same vague anti-LDS prejudice that some Americans do.”

”For them it’s a doctrinal thing based on a very specific theological dispute that can’t be overcome by personality or charm or even shared positions on social issues.”

Mitt Romney**: Well, I know a number of great evangelicals that I speak with and that are very interested in me and what I stand for. We worked together in Massachusetts. They had no difficulty supporting me there. They have had no difficulty supporting my dad when he ran for president and for governor.

And the reason is because I’m at the forefront of some of the toughest issues in the nation that relate to the culture of our land. We have dealt with same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. And I’m the leader in the fight to preserve traditional marriage.

We have dealt with stem cell research. I’m the leader in the fight to keep cloning and stem -- if you will, embryo farming from being introduced to the land. We have dealt with abstinence education in classrooms.

And I’m fighting hand-in-hand with evangelical and conservative religious leaders to encourage abstinence education in our schools. So we are on the same page on values. And that’s what evangelicals care about.

But, of course, there will be some percent who say they wouldn’t vote for me no matter what. But, you know, overall, if you look at the American public, the great majority want a person of faith but don’t care about what particular religion they believe in.

Then there is probably a pretty significant slice to say, you know, all other things being equal, I would just as soon not have a guy in that Mormon church that I don’t much about, but you know what, all of the things aren’t equal.

They get to know candidates. They learn about their positions. And they see whether they have the same values or not. And that sweeps away questions about someone’s particular religion. And then of course there is the last tiny slice that wouldn’t support somebody based on a religious test.

I don’t think that’s the American way. It’s certainly not the way in the Republican Party. We don’t apply religious tests. And I think for that reason, whether it’s me or somebody down the road, they are going to get judged ultimately by their positions and their views on the issues and their character and their vision.

I think people long ago said, well, Ronald Reagan can’t get elected, after all, he has been divorced and he is an actor. Jack Kennedy can’t get elected, he’s a Catholic. Mitt Romney can’t be elected governor of Massachusetts, the most -- well, one of the most Catholic states in America.

And all those things happened because people looked beyond the differences in doctrine and churches, which I would never get into, and instead focused on the person and their vision.