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October 23, 2006
Taking The Church Out Of The Equation
This whole Romney/LDS Church debacle that's been all the rage in the Boston Globe and the Trib has been interesting to watch. This morning's take in the Trib has a member of Romney's PAC taking the blame for the emails:
A longtime friend and major campaign contributor of Mitt Romney took the blame Sunday for a politically damaging controversy about the Massachusetts governor reportedly seeking LDS Church help setting up a nationwide network of Mormons to advance his expected 2008 presidential bid.
"I'm to blame for this whole mess," Romney confidant Kem Gardner told The Salt Lake Tribune, saying characterizations of what were "innocent" discussions between the governor, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and church officials were "unfortunate."
Something about this whole episode strikes me as calculated and surprisingly shrewd. Here we are, a little over 2 years out from the 2008 Presidential Election, and Mitt Romney has effectively separated himself from the LDS Church. It's plausible deniablity in it's greatest incarnation. Romney is off the hook because the whole episode has now been described as a misunderstanding, not a ploy to build campaign funds or volunteers. The Church is off the hook because now they have publicly stated that they have a strict hands off policy regarding candidates or potential candidates.
They say it here:
Church officials say they have a position of strict neutrality on political matters and are not supporting Romney's candidacy.
here:
The church strongly denied coordination with Romney's team, with spokesman Michael Otterson offering an "emphatic no" to questions about Holland agreeing to help the potential campaign. He described the Sept. 19 meeting as a "casual visit with no declared agenda," adding that "Holland re-emphasized the church's political neutrality rules."
and here:
A church spokesman said last week that it was nonsense to suggest church leaders were working in any way to aid Romney's political campaign, adding that Hinckley did not know of the Romney initiative to build a nationwide network of Mormon supporters.
What that does is create a large and publicly recorded separation that both sides can point to when the inevitable questions start to arise regarding possible collusion between the Romney campaign and the LDS Church. As Romney's war chest continues to grow and his prominence as a Presidential contender increases in tandem, a lot of MSM types will be looking for that connection, which will no longer exist.
Brilliant.
Posted by Jonathan at October 23, 2006 1:12 PM
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Comments
Jon: Great Article and very perceptive insight on your part. I like it and I like Romney. Hugh had to cancel his trip because of this apparent blow up which was real. Whether intentional or not the fall out is good for Romney as you point out. If this was a Good Cop/Bad Cop strategy deal to get the LDS Church off the hook as having a conflict of interest and violating the IRS Tax-exception rule for Churches by an endorsement for Gov. Romney's Presidential run Hugh was an unwitting prop. It seems that Hugh Hewitt was he was going to come for sure. Either way Romney is smart guy and whether it was planned or not this event has inured to his benefit as you point out so cleverly. The Jurassic Main Stream Media will not be able to beat up on the LDS Church as a result of this. Good DEAL!
Francis X.
Here's an article in Deseret(http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650200100,00.html) from Thursday Oct. 19, 2006 previously written for the Boston Globe. Way to go Jon!
"Over the past two months, Romney's political operatives and church leaders have discussed building a grass-roots political organization using alumni chapters of Brigham Young University's business school around the country. More recently, representatives of BYU, which is run by the church, and Romney's political action committee have begun soliciting help from prominent Mormons, including a well-known author suggested by the governor, to build the program, which Romney advisers dubbed Mutual Values and Priorities, or MVP."
Posted by: Francis at October 24, 2006 7:09 PM