And this one doesn't even work at Bob Jones. The CBN's David Brody reports
that Dr. Don Wilton, Senior Pastor At The First Baptist mega Church Of Spartanburg, South Carolina and former President of the South Carolina Baptist Convention has endorsed Mitt Romney.
Meanwhile, via Marc Ambinder, the Southern Political Report's Matt Towery makes the smart point that South Carolina could be for Romney what West Virginia was for JFK in 1960.
Which makes me think that at some point Romney will have to do a JFK-like speech and address the subject of his religion. The strange thing is, despite Romney's obvious reluctance to do this, when he does discuss his Mormonism head-on, as he did in this off-air exchange with an Iowa talk radio host, I think he comes off pretty well. Similarly, Ann Romney got into it with an NPR interviewer the other day about that unusually harsh Newsweek story on Romney and Mormonism and, to my ears at least, sounded pretty impressive, not to mention sympathetic.
It all reminds me of something Noam noted in his great Romney piece in the current issue:
Romney's Mormonism may, in a perverse way, help him in a place like New Hampshire. Without it, he's just another well-spoken preppy with a square jaw. With it, he becomes instantly sympathetic, someone you can relate to--the victim of circumstances beyond his control. Everything about Romney may scream "overdog." But, at this moment, he is the opposite.
--Jason Zengerle