Romney's speech (2)

Romney's challenge has been compared to that faced by John F. Kennedy when he ran for President nearly half a century ago in a political environment profoundly suspicious of "Papism". In fact, the problem he faces is completely different. Kennedy merely had to convince the country that he would keep his religion out of governance. The Christian Right base of the modern Republican party firmly believes that religion deserves to have a major role in governance. Romney's task was to convince these people that he would indeed be strongly influenced by religion in his conduct as President -- but that it nevertheless does not matter which religion he believes in. This is an impossible position. His speech probably did as good a job of defending it as is humanly possible, but in the end it's simply untenable.