It really is about religion ...
 

Barbara has posted a reasonable explanation on why people don't relate to Romney, but even at this juncture in New Hampshire Romney cannot escape questions about his religion:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_7893971

A majority of voters will not vote for Romney because he is Mormon and for no other reason!

Then Mormons should leave and form their own country to show the bigots what we think of them.

We're big on complaining things aren't fair, but we never do anything about it. Perhaps we need to be more tribal and react the way the Jewish community reacts.

I don't doubt that there is *some* anti-LDS sentiment laced in, but IMO my good LDS friends shouldn't get too hung up on the religion aspect.

In Iowa the EVs voted for Huckabee, but not comprehensively. The difference between Huckabee's & Romney's support among the EV vote was interesting - Mitt got 20-something percent of the EV crowd (or something roughly equivalent)

As for Romney's attractiveness as candidate overall, it looks like he's not well regarded by the other candidates (which isn't so unusual for a front-runner), and his liabilities - particularly the changing positions - is a big problem, as all the easy shots from other candidates yesterday showed.

Mitt spent a ton of money in Iowa - I'd guess there may have been some backlash against the wealthy (apparently) trying to buy a victory was a part, as well.

Those issues don't appear to be religion-related at all.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7751.html

Just a friendly suggestion here. How about Mormons reflecting a little on why they seem so freaky to those outside the faith? They could learn something from all this. Waxing defensive and self-righteous is rarely a path to increased wisdom. (As we've discussed, rejecting a candidate for his religiuos faith is not ipso facto imoral. In fact, many Mormons are themselves repelled by Huckabee on the same grounds.)

Agreed. How many pro-Huckabee message boards have seen threads stating their unbelief that people would reject his ads with religious symbols in the background?

Yes. Where you stand depends a great deal on where you sit. We would all be very skeptical of a scientologist candidate , for example. I admit I would be, based on what I know about that faith. I think Huckabee saying he is the "Christian" candidate is offensive, but it is a fair area of inquiry.

Wow, that's one voter they quoted there. Hardly representative nor a majority.

I don't doubt that there exist voters who will not look past his religion. However, I think Romney's real challenge is that he alienates the average Midwest/Southern voter with his lack of charisma, his tremendous wealth, and even his intellect. It's fine to be smart, but you've got to play the part of the regular guy. Look at Obama. He's by any account incredibly intelligent. But he's not afraid to lower his diction and even take on a vernacular accent when necessary. It's fine to be wealthy, but you've got to pretend you're not. Look at Edwards. Tremendously affluent, yet spends all his time talking about saw mills. I honestly don't think Romney's interested in playing the part of the game where you pretend you're an average American. The truth is, the average American just plain doesn't run for president, so you've got an uphill battle convincing us you're one of "us." But if you want to connect with the voters, you've gotta try.

I briefly watched part of the dem debate last night. He made reference to splitting his time time between watching the GOP debate and the football game.

I don't think that's a comment Romney would make.

In other words, I think Obama can make himself appear to be able to relate to ordinary middle-class Americans. Romney can't.

Exactly. But frankly, it's not just Obama. Pretty much all of the remaining candidates are finding ways to connect with the middle class, just not Romney.

Your avatar seems to be trying to find a way to connect with me.

I've never known a Mormon who was so wealthy, so privileged, that he couldn't connect to average people. Of course, I've always run in ghetto Mormon circles, so my opinion doesn't count for much.

The guy was a stake president, assigned to motivate and inspire normal people. I would have expected him to be able to communicate better to average people.

Romney just isn't a guy whom you want to lead your platoon into battle. You want him on the backlines running the logistics support.