A Mormon in the White House

Speakeasy's presidential candidate profile

By Luke Wright, Staff Writer

November 2, 2007 | 11 a.m.

Mitt Romney is one lucky man. At 20, while driving from Bordeaux, France, to Paris, he was struck by a drunk driver and mistakenly pronounced dead. Following rehabilitation, Romney recovered from his ordeal and is now a Republican presidential candidate.

Romney has been surrounded by politics since birth. His mother, Lenore Romney, was a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1970, and his father, George W. Romney, was the governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969. George sought the presidency in 1967, but he was never considered a legitimate contender and withdrew from the race in early 1968. The legacy passed from father to son, however, and now Romney is trying to accomplish what his father was never able to attain – the presidency of the United States of America.

Education

Mitt graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in 1971 and an MBA and J.D., cum laude, from Harvard in 1975. From there, Romney spent three years working to become vice president for the management consulting firm Bain & Company, Inc. He then left the firm in 1984 to found his own venture capital and investment firm, Bain Capital.

With the Salt Lake City Olympic Games in financial and logistical distress, Romney left Bain Capital in 1999 to become the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. He undertook efforts to garner enough money, volunteers and security to allow the games to proceed undeterred. After Salt Lake in 2002, Romney used his newfound notoriety as a matchless organizer to launch a successful gubernatorial campaign in Massachusetts.

While the governor of the Bay State, Romney provided free privatized health insurance into a market-based reform bill, reinstated a “foolproof” death penalty plan and even kept intact the state’s abortion laws, despite his Republican affiliation. In early 2007, Governor Romney filed for a federal exploratory committee to be formed on his behalf. Days later, Governor Romney officially announced his plans to run for president of the United States.

On the issues

Romney’s loyalty to the Republican Party has been challenged by political pundits who have dubbed him a “RINO,” or Republican In Name Only. He has also been labeled a flip-flopper, mirroring accusations directed towards John Kerry in the last election. The validity of these claims is up for debate, but Governor Romney has been steadfast in his beliefs since the outset of his presidential campaign. Here is a summary of Romney’s outlook on a few hot-button issues:

Supports the fight on narcotics in South America.
Is a staunch opponent of gay marriage. Romney has said, “A child should have both a father and a mother.”
Supported the death penalty for heinous murders in 2002.
Believes that in the case of first-time Internet predators, lifetime GPS tracking should be enacted to deter criminals from becoming repeat offenders.
Has “fought for abstinence education” in schools.
Wishes to abolish the Department of Education in place of a more locally controlled educational reform system.
Feels that family values, instead of a single religion, should be taught in schools.
Believes that the United States should become energy-independent by developing alternative sources of energy and utilizing its own sources of oil, including the ANWR and Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
Believes that 45 million uninsured individuals in the United States could be insured if a free-market based system were implemented.
Believes that legally wiretapping mosques that exhibit signs of extremist ties is acceptable.
Feels that Guantanamo Bay could be doubled so that the U.S. doesn’t have to bring the terrorists into the country and allow them to have access to lawyers.
Believes that John McCain’s immigration bill essentially allows aliens who have entered the country illegally to stay here despite their illegitimate tactics.
Does not believe illegal immigrants should be given a ticket to the front of the immigration line because of their illicit actions.

Controversy

Romney’s father is not the only connection that he has to the political realm. Governor Romney has also been compared to the one of America’s most infamous presidents, John F. Kennedy. Like Kennedy, the United States’ first Catholic president, Romney, if elected, would be the first Mormon president in the nation’s history.

Because of what Governor Romney describes as a general “misunderstanding” of his faith, some believe that his affiliation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will only hinder his chances of election. A Pew Research Center poll taken in February 2007 substantiated this idea, revealing that 30 percent of the respondents would be less likely to vote for a candidate if he or she were of the Mormon faith.

Contrasting religions have further exploited this fact by demonizing his faith as a polygamist cult. Romney has refuted these claims by educating the masses in the finer points of his religion. The most notable, and admittedly unpleasant, of these points is that of polygamy, an act that has been officially denounced by Mormons since 1890. Unfortunately for Governor Romney, fundamentalist sects of Mormons, similar to the one formally headed by Warren Jeffs, continue to perpetuate the myth of polygamy’s acceptance.

Further controversies have arisen about one of his most generous campaign contributors. Marriott International, whose board Romney served on from 1992 to 2001 and who has contributed a reported $113, 050 to his campaign effort, is a considerable purveyor of pornographic material.

Being a passionate advocate of family values, Romney’s acceptance of funds from such a large vendor of pornography – one estimate puts Marriott’s annual pornographic revenue in the tens of millions – is considered by some to be not only hypocritical, but shameless. Romney has said that though he finds the use of pornography by adults “objectionable,” he is "not pursuing an effort to try and stop adults from being able to acquire [it].” It is their right, he concludes, and rights cannot be tampered with.

It has also been disclosed that Marriott International agreed to its television and movie service with On Command Corporation a year before Romney joined its board. Romney, whose wife, Ann, and 5 children have supported him throughout his career, will continue to forge ahead. Only time will tell whether America, the land where anyone can succeed, is ready for a Mormon president.

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