Fred Thompson isn't the reason he isn't the republican front runner, the fact that most republicans think he belongs to a cult religion is. It wouldn't matter who the front runner was, it still wouldn't be him. I think this proves that the religious right owns the republican party if someone outside mainstream christianity has to work double hard just to get the nomination.

Incidently, someone might want to tell Romney that the "culture wars" aren't the big issue this time around. The republicans are having a hard enough time getting people to stay with them, the last thing their going to do is bring out their fake issues to scare away already wary voters.

I agree with you that a candidates position in the 'culture wars' won't be the deciding factor in their campaigns, but I think that this means that Romney's religious affiliation won't be the reason he won't come out on top. I think his biggest fault is his inability to stick to one side of some pretty big issues (abortion, gun control, etc) through two consecutive campaigns. The inability of his constituents to predict how he will approach any of the issues they feel are important when the chips are down (i.e., when a position that's good for him at the moment is at odds with the position that he ran on) make him pretty much unelectable.

If you think mormanism has a bad rap with only republicans, I have an anecdote for you.

There's a show on MTV called engaged and underage. I have no clever excuse for sitting through the episode, but the bottom line was this: the couple got married(sealed) in a mormon temple, and the parents of the groom, not being mormons, did not get to see their own son get married.

Now, I know there's worse things that could happen to a parent, but being deliberately and systematically excluded from your own child's wedding is pretty messed up.

I don't think Romney losing will be a sign of dominance of the religious right. I would like to think even those who are left of center or non-religious would have problems with a morman president.

I think you are right about the "cult" thing. however, it does not only bug the Christian Right Wing. Take Christopher Htichens' recent column about the origin of the Book of Mormon (hint: it has something to do with Joseph Smith's vivid imagination). The squeaky-weird Mormons spook many non-religious folks who are not similarly alarmed by "mainstream" religious types.

Romney has less of a chance of being elected than I have. Until he invested large amounts of his own money in what is a failing attempt to become a contendor, no one outside of New England had ever heard of him. First rule of politics: Southerners will not vote for a Yankee for President. Second rule of politics: The majority of the voters will never elect anyone from Massachusetts to be President.

I will give you the flip flopping thing. That is a major turn off for any candiddate regardless of party, but I have heard many people say they would never vote for a mormon. This is what makes me suspect the dominance if the religious right.

Somebody else said that most of the public doesn't know anything about Romney or mormonism, I think that might also be a huge turn off.

I gotta say Mormons are no more creepy -- and no less "Christian" -- than Pat Robertson & Jerry Falwell.

Remember, Catholics are the original Christians. Evangelicals are themselves not "mainstream" (or Mainline as it's known) Protestants. They are an offshoot of the Christian denominations who fled Europe to get away from religious persecution by...that's right: other Christians.

So, in my book, that makes them a pack of hypocrites. Period. In fact, I'd bet that they're actually jealous of Mormons because they got the hard core Jesus-lovin' thing down years before they did. And Utah is pretty sweet. Check it out sometime.

Yeah but a 50 year old fart marrying several 12 olds just kinda seems a bit much. Its bad enough with all the stump-jumpers in the trailer park marrying their cousins. We don't need another "Faith based President".

Romney doesn't get it? A person should investigate and find out about a religion before they make "fact comments"! With how far our country has come with social awareness and overcoming bigotry, I would think that a person could come up with a more educated, non discriminatory reason why Romney would not do a good job as president. Romney's track record of hard work and ethics has in the past proved that he knows how to turn around large companies, govern large diverse states and keep scandal free the whole time. If you investigate Romney's past you will see that he has lived the most Christian life out of all the candidates, he is respected in both the political field and business world.