Mitt responds to Schweitzer Mormon slamt0.gstatic.com
Mitt responds to Schweitzer Mormon slam
Made popular 423 days ago in Politics
politico.com — Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer isn’t backing away from controversial comments he made about Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith. Instead, the Democrat is doubling down.
Through a statement from a senior adviser, Schweitzer stood by his claim that Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, would have a hard time narrowing the gender gap with President Barack Obama because his “family came from a polygamy commune in Mexico,” and because women are “not great fans of polygamy.”

“The governor meant what he said, precisely. It has nothing to do with Mr. Romney’s faith or the Mormon church, both of which the governor knows reject polygamy,” Schweitzer adviser Eric Stern said in a statement to POLITICO.
“Rather, Mr. Schweitzer was describing a strategic problem that Romney faces, politically speaking: that Romney is in serious trouble with Hispanic voters because [he] took an ultra right-wing position on immigration during the primary; that to reach out to Hispanic voters Romney would probably like to be able to discuss the fact that his father was born in Mexico; but, that this is awkward for Romney to discuss, because it requires discussing, as well, the fact that his father was born into a polygamy colony.”
Romney set the record straight in an interview on Fox News Friday afternoon without directly attacking Schweitzer.
“I don’t know that I have any particular reaction,” he said.
“My dad’s dad was not a polygamist. My dad grew up in a family with a mom and a dad and a few brothers and one sister,” he said. “They lived in Mexico and lived a very nice life there from what I understand and then when he was , I think five or six years old there was a revolution in Mexico. They escaped. I believe they went to El Paso first, and were helped by the government to get on their feet and then his dad went around the country, Los Angeles, I think Idaho, Utah, went broke more than once. My dad had a very tough upbringing.”
While Stern’s statement backs up Schweitzer’s original comments, it’s far softer — and much more nuanced — than a statement he provided earlier to The Daily Beast, which published Schweitzer’s initial remarks.
“The governor believes exactly what he said: that Romney is in a pickle,” Stern said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “Romney will probably not choose to highlight his own family’s connection to Mexico as a way of reaching out to Hispanics, because that history involves a polygamy colony, which is something that Romney doesn’t like to discuss.”
Schweitzer’s comments are the latest example of a string of third parties to the campaign setting off political firestorms with their words, from Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, who criticized Ann Romney, to rocker Ted Nugent, who slammed Obama.
Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has disavowed the comments, and has long said that “attacking a candidate’s religion is out of bounds.”

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Do you believe Mitt Romney's Mormon faith will effect his decision making if elected president?
Why should it matter? He believes that Jesus is the Lord and the Bible is the only word of the Lord
3%
Strong No
6%
Yes
7.5%
No
52%
Strong Yes
22%
Absolutely, he might encourage young Christians to believe the false prophesies in the Book of Mormon
3%
Absolutely Not, at least his faith is better that Obama's Baptist faith in the White House
4.5%
Maybe
1.5%
This is not a scientific survey, click here to learn more. Results may not total 100% due to rounding and voting descrepencies.
User Comments
james2044
Posted 423 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
I'll go with Romney being a Mormon a lot better than I go with Obama being a commie.
lastbaldeagle
Posted 422 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
AMEN!
lastbaldeagle
Posted 422 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
The Metrics in Favor of a Romney Win

A traveler from a distant planet landing in the United States right now would, if observing the Presidential election, presume the election was about a war on women or teasing over a cookie or the leader of the free world eating dogs or something else inconsequential to the Presidential election.

In fact, it is a concerted effort on the part of the Democrats to hide the economy from people’s attention. Like the Great Oz, the Democrats prefer no one pay attention to the economic disaster behind the curtains. I have run a great many campaigns. Each has a real narrative focus. The goal of the campaign is to try to stay on that narrative focus and not get distracted by the team worried about losing. The Democrats’ antics reveal they are deeply worried about losing. They cannot fight on the issue that is singularly at play in this election — Barack Obama’s bungling of the economy, so they must try to force Mitt Romney to play elsewhere.

Mitt Romney is a deeply flawed candidate. His path to victory was smoothed based on familiarity by Republican voters, their habit of picking the guy who ran last time, and his money. He only shined in states where he massively outspent his opponents. That spending advantage covered up many, many flaws. Were the economy to improve, Mitt Romney would lose to Barack Obama. It is abundantly clear, however, from Democrat hyperbole about a host of ancillary issues and their hard spin on economic data that the economy is not improving and the metrics of victory are in Mitt Romney’s favor.
grandmakdw
Posted 422 days ago
1 up votes, 0 down votes
The Dems shouldn't open up the can of worms about religion. The dog issues bit them. The woman's issue turned around and should have stayed at home. Obama's religious actions are Muslim, he speaks Baptist, but his actions are Muslim and actions speak louder than words. Also, his father's background is also polygamous so to go there can cause multiple problems for the Dems also.
james2044
Posted 422 days ago
0 up votes, 0 down votes
@grandmakdw the Dems are lashing out trying to score points. They are really like a wounded rat snapping at it's entrails.
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