Is Mitt Fit?

There are a lot of reasons I'm not likely to vote for Mitt Romney. His religion is not one of them.

I've been wondering what it is about Mormons in general that people seem to fear. Granted, they act somewhat like the Taliban in Utah in the context that their religious beliefs and their laws are so intertwined. Some seem out of step with the rest of the country to people like Hub and myself. An example would be their liquor laws. We could not have a drink at the bar in an Applebees without ordering something to eat. Waiting for a table for dinner we did not care to do so. When we were seated and ordered what was a fairly decent bottle of wine, we were not permitted to have it sit open. The cork had to be in it. Just irritating.

Not enough, however, to disqualify anyone from anything except our future patronage. In this country, so far, it's still our choice.

Maybe it's the young men on their missions. We've all met them. Canvassing our neighborhoods on bicycle or on foot. Always clean cut, dressed in shirt and tie and polite. This day and age I'm sure this is foreign to many. No earrings, no underwear showing nor backwards baseball caps at the dinner table. But not enough to disqualify anyone from anything.

So it comes down to the casting of aspersions by the competitors. Those who live in glass houses...

On Meet the Press he was asked about how he could embrace a religion that denied blacks in its ministry for so many years. How many of the Catholic candidates have been asked how they can embrace a religion that has so many pedophiles among it's clergy and a hierarchy who protects them? Why isn't McCain pressed as to why he became a Southern Baptist after being a lifelong Episcopalian and why isn't Huckabee asked how he really feels about the role of women in our society after signing a dictum that states, in effect, that women should submit unquestionably and happily to the dictum's of their men?

I'm not a Giuliani fan either, but he at least admits he is not a poster child for his religion.

It is troubling to me that one's religious preference has become such an issue. When I was growing up several things were pounded into me. You don't talk about religion, politics nor ask how much money someone makes. Any one old enough to remember that?

I left organized religion behind long ago. I do consider myself as having a spiritual side. I try to live my life well but what I do or do not believe is personal. I should think my friends don't care. I am judged by the way I live my life.

Should the same not hold true for political figures? Why is it they feel they must cater to the religious right? Why is it they can't say this is what I believe and this is what I'll try to do. If you agree, please vote for me. If you don't, then I'm not the candidate for you. If they tell us what they think we want to hear rather than what they really believe, what will we get? And what does it say about us?

The reason I am not considering Mr. Romney is because of his flip flops on Gay marriage and abortion. I don't buy the "enlightened" explanation. I do buy political expediency. So in a nut shell. He wants to be President. He'll say whatever is necessary. As with so many of the other candidates, does he have any convictions of his own and if he does why is he so afraid of them. I'd like to have heard them. If I agreed with them I'd have considered voting for him. But it's too late.

What is it we really want in a President? And what will we get? I'm not encouraged.