Over on the homepage, I look at recent stories showing Mitt Romney’s odd side and quirks, and worry about the ammunition they provide for a no-holds-barred opponent like Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
I suspect this section will spur some discussion:
And this isn’t even getting into the already infamous Mormon factor. Have you noticed the sudden interest in Mormonism in the mainstream media, and the less-than-flattering portrait, emerging just as Romney appears on the national stage? It’s easily forgotten that the protagonists of HBO’s Big Love are part of a breakaway sect, not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (The Boston Globe’s Alex Beam did his part to blur the distinction).
PBS’s special on Mormonism made sure to mention “celestial marriage,” and the AP has already helpfully pointed out that one of Romney’s ancestors was a polygamist, as if we regularly took the character of a candidate’s great-great-grandfathers into account when selecting a president. In August, September Dawn comes to theaters, telling of the Mountain Meadows massacre, when Mormon militiamen attacked and murdered a wagon train of emigrants of more than 120 men, women and children on (COUGH) September 11, 1857.
After eight months of covering a Romney campaign, the mainstream media will make the Mormon church resemble Wahhabism without the melanin.