Damon Linker has written a very smart essay about Mitt Romney and his Mormon problem. Or, as Linker disturbingly suggests, our Mormon problem. Analytically powerful, wonderfully written though it is, I have concerns about whether it is actually right. And, yes, I worry about whether there isn't a slippery slope that drags Romney down because of his religion and that therefore that same slippery slope won't also drag someone else with a different religion down. OK, maybe this is not logical. But it worries me nonetheless. And, though I don't much like Romney, as readers of The Spine will know (see here and here), I fear that being the first Mormon--except his father--to come close to the presidency he will be the Mormon who suffers for his faith. And might we not have fretted deeply over George Bush's Christianity? Frankly, I actually did and do worry about Jimmy Carter's faith that made and still makes him behave like a rejected and dejected prophet. Carter really seems to think that he is a vessel of the Lord. Which Romney doesn't, however much he consults with his church's elders about his campaign. And, besides, isn't Harry Reid, the new Democratic majority leader in the Senate, also a Mormon? I know that the majority leader is not the president. But he sure has a lot of power. Now, if Mormon Reid can separate his religion from his politics, why can't Mormon Romney? Believe me, there was nothing in Romney's governorship of my home state, the Bay State, that suggested that his Mormon beliefs triumphed over the usual politics of give and take, more take than give.