History Repeats, Romney Likely to Use Kennedy Strategy on Religion

By Robert Rupp

DURING the 1960 West Virginia primary the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, a popular minister and national columnist, expressed doubts about a Catholic becoming president. Specifically he suggested that John Kennedy’s religion might prevent him from having “his first loyalty to the United States.”

When Peale was asked by WSAZ-TV if the religious issue was a legitimate one, he responded, “Unfortunately, I’m afraid that it is. Anything that is in the minds of thousands of the electorate can’t be dodged, because people are thinking about it.”

Forty-seven years later the religion of Mitt Romney is apparently on the minds of many voters, and as, Peale pointed out, when that happens, a candidate ultimately must act or be accused of dodging.

At the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in Texas today, Romney will give a major address on religion. The candidate will speak openly about his faith and how it should not be a hindrance to his election.

Like John Kennedy, Romney came to the decision to speak out reluctantly and late.

The rise of Gov. Mike Huckabee and the corrosion of his once strong lead in Iowa, are forcing him to address concerns about his religious faith.

Polls today suggest that a similar percentage of Americans hold similar concerns about a Mormon president as they did in 1960 about a Catholic. Such statistics raise concerns about Romney’s electability in evangelical heavy early Republican primaries in Iowa and South Carolina.

The national media have been quick to point out similarities between Mitt Romney’s address in Texas to Kennedy’s famous address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on Sept. 12, 1960.

But a more appropriate analogy would be to an earlier speech Kennedy made here in West Virginia on April 18, 1960. That day in Fairmont, Kennedy revealed his confrontational strategy on religion. After months of avoiding the topic in his speeches, Kennedy addressed it directly.

Addressing a crowd of 2,000, Kennedy asserted that the issue of religious freedom “might as well be settled right here in West Virginia.” Kennedy continued, “I don’t think that my religion is anyone’s business but my business.” Any attempt to raise the religious test for public office was unconstitutional and ought to be “laid out for good.”

Speaking in Clarksburg later in the day, Kennedy pointed out, “The real issues in West Virginia are unemployed coal miners and jobless glass workers, not where I go to church on Sunday.”

Throughout the rest of the campaign, Kennedy confronted the religious issue directly in his speeches instead of waiting to be asked by the audience afterwards. Theodore White later wrote that this new strategy reflected the pressure from his West Virginia advisers, who said that West Virginia was afraid of Catholics and “to erase the fear the matter must be tackled frontally.”

We can expect Romney in his Texas speech this week will take at least five cues, if not quotes, from the playbook Kennedy used during the 1960 West Virginia primary.

First, Romney will blame the press. (Kennedy: “They should beware … of either magnifying this [religious] issue or oversimplifying it.”)

Second, Romney will eschew the label of being the “Mormon candidate for president.” (Kennedy: “I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I do not speak for Catholic Church on public policy and no one in the Catholic Church speaks for me.”)

Third, he will avoid a detailed discussion or defense of the Mormon faith. An aid to Romney already has said the speech will not be “Mormon 101.” (Kennedy: “Do not expect me to explain or defend every act or statement of every Pope or priest in this century or the last.”)

Fourth, Romney will argue that competence is more important than denomination. (Kennedy: “I believe that the American people are more concerned with a man’s views and abilities than with the church he belongs to.”)

And finally, Romney will appeal to a sense of fair play by framing the religious issue in terms religious tolerance and intolerance.

There is no doubt that Kennedy will be on the mind of the media and the Romney campaign as he uses a confrontational strategy on the religious issue this week in Texas.

The fact that Kennedy employed the tactic successfully in West Virginia created for the Romney campaign both an opportunity and a burden.

After his landslide victory in the Mountain state, Kennedy announced that the religious issue had been “buried eight feet deep in West Virginia.” Romney supporters are waiting to see if their candidates can make a similar boast after his series of primaries in 2008.

Rupp is a political science professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

(c) 2007 Charleston Gazette, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.