looks like howard kurtz agrees w/ you, as do I , but much of america seems to agree w/ SM, which is too bad. [rquoter]he press seems downright excited at the prospect of the first female president. The idea of the first black president has journalists all but giddy. But the first Mormon president? Whoa! That's a different matter. The skeptical tone toward Mitt Romney's announcement has been impossible to miss. And the major reason is his religion.[/rquoter]
I have no problem with a Mormon presidential candidate. I don't necessarily agree with candidate Romney on a number of issues (gay marriage being one of them), some of which may be a result of his faith (again, gay marriage). I wouldn't choose not to vote for him simply because of his religion though. I agree with him on other issues (eg. abortion, taxes) that he may also have come to through his faith.
To most Christians in a protestant setting, Mormonism is a cult. Their deepest teachings indicate that every human may some day be a god, in control of another planet. In fact they believe that the God of Israel (Elohim) is a spirit UFO and that we are all His children... and thus, you too can be one of those "parents" of all the people on a new planet some day... If you put it your 2 years missionary work and follow the strictest of rules... etc. And that is NOT anywhere in Scripture. It is quite the extra-Biblical falseness that Jesus Himself warned about in scripture. Mormonism calls itself "Mormonism" because it is NOT Christian, though they believe in Christ's teachings they stress Jospeh Smith's more... As far as that goes, Islam teaches Christ's teachings to a certain degree... and I'd be willing to nearly bet that any Muslim candidate has no shot either.
Romney wants Hilarycare. There's no way I'd vote for him. I like my taxes below 50%, thank you very much.
As a Christian Protestant most of the Christian Protestants I know at least consider that Mormons are Christians. Mormons most definitely do call themselves Christians, and to say that they call themselves is Mormons instead is like saying Baptists call themselves Baptists instead of Christians. It is pointless for you or I to try and say who has a shot at whatever you think heaven is. In the end we aren't the judges of that. If we are to judge people by their fruits, then by far some of the best examples of living lives in a Christian manner I have seen done by Mormons, who in general aren't judgemental, live by a strict moral code, read the bible, attend worship services, pray extensively etc. I am not Mormon nor do I believe everything they believe, but I don't condemn either. That just isn't my place.
Are the majority of your friends in that category Adults? Are they in leadership? Attended seminary? In church government in "mainstream" and/or "main line" denominations? I'd say that they've been decieved... and may even call Jehovah's Witness a Christian denomination. Truth be told, it IS the responsibility and place for Christians to proclaim these truths about Mormons and the like. Just because someone agrees that Christ and His teachings are good or acceptable does not make them Christian... and your comparison of Baptists and Mormons is way off, to say the least. In fact, Baptist Theoological Seminaries teach what I'm saying about Mormons. As do Methodist, Presby, Espicopal, Lutheran, A/G, Rhema, FCC, and so and and so forth. The trick is, most in Mormonism do not know the full stance of the Mormon church (or which division of ity they are even in)... and in that naivety, I can see where their friends and acquaintances can be mistaken into thinking they are a similar belief... Again, not all who claim Mormonism are even aware of the different, basic, fundamental differences in the "faiths." The paradoxical truth is that, having said all of that, I believe there may very well be people identified as "Mormon" in the Heaven that most Christians believe in... but more because of the Grace of God, and the fact being that the leadership was not forth right in the information shared... and the individuals found Christ as Savior without the rest of the UFOlogy... Furthermore, about "judging." Christ did not say "Don't Judge." He said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged, for with the same measure YE JUDGE ye shall be judged." That is to say... "Be Warned about judging! Because when you do, you'll be judged the same way... with the same measure." I'd hope that any believer in the Word would point out to me if I was involved in directly extra-Biblical, extra-Christian teachings... thus helping me see the Bible as what Jesus said it was... THE Word of God, with no need for further texts. He warned of such... and the book of Mormon (which I have read extensively, btw) is exactly the type of text Jesus warned against... which most following Mormonism are SURELY never taught within the LDS system. At least their peanut butter is salmonella-free. But if you choose not to research it for yourself, then don't tell me what I've read for myself, and have been told by Mormons themselves, in a manner that in itself is judgmental of my stance. That would be YOU taking the very place you said was NOT yours. fwiw
I want to give a shout out to my favorite Republican candidate Mike Huckabee: <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vCTNy4i0KLk"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vCTNy4i0KLk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> He did this amazing interview on the Daily Show where he basically blew me away with his sincerity. Now if his campaign folks are not idiots, they will upload that clip to Youtube ASAP!
It's all relative. Remember that Dem parade in the last election? I guess Obama is the next Jack Kennedy-- replacing the Catholic definer with a Black one. Hope he has a better outcome if he wins. This country craves a new vision: Giuliani v Obama will be fascinating...
What GOP war candidate decided it wasn’t important and blew off the senate escalation vote today to go campaign? John McCain
Hum… Giuliani following the Bush model of campaigning? ----------------- Stepping to the Plate, Giuliani Is Seeing Only Softballs By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA SPARTANBURG, S.C., Feb. 21 — In a swing through South Carolina this week, Rudolph W. Giuliani chose to campaign at a fire house, which is a little like Derek Jeter meeting with Yankees fans — a most unlikely forum for hostility, or even much skepticism. Instead of the sometimes barbed give-and-take endured by the other candidates, Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, fielded a few questions from the firefighters and police officers who gathered to hear him here. The questions, which began with comments like, “Being in your presence here is just unbelievable,” stuck almost entirely to issues on which Mr. Giuliani is most comfortable, like airport security and border control. More than the other major presidential candidates, Mr. Giuliani has limited himself to events with narrowly defined, friendly audiences, avoiding the kind of uncomfortable interrogations his rivals have occasionally faced. Aside from a couple of brief swings through diners, including one yesterday in Delray Beach, Fla., he has done little of the politicking that exposes candidates to random sets of people — at shopping malls or train stations — who might be of any political stripe, and can raise any issue. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/u...1&oref=slogin&ref=washington&pagewanted=print
New Poll: GOP Voters Want None Of The Above After years of political dominance, Republican voters now view their party as divided and say they are not satisfied with the choice of candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. ----------------- ...nearly 6 in 10 Republicans said they wanted more choices. Yet the poll found that a substantial number of Republicans did not know enough about their leading contenders — Senator John McCain of Arizona; Rudolph W. Giuliani, former mayor of New York; and Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts — to offer an opinion of them. “I think the Republican candidate has not appeared yet,” said Richard Gerrish, 69, a Republican from Greenacres, Fla. “The ones we have now will run out of steam. Someone will come along later that will do better.” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/u...4691f00633839a&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Hilarious, the times as usual tries it's best to depict republicans as barefoot southern rubes! Green acres is the place for me. Farm livin' is the life for me. Land spreadin' out so far and wide Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.
An interesting column from the Economist about McCain's chances. They see him as having a far better chance than one might believe. Slow train coming Mar 8th 2007 From The Economist print edition Kevin Kallaugher John McCain is a more powerful presidential candidate than he currently appears THE last time he ran for president John McCain spent months rolling around New Hampshire in a bus, the Straight Talk Express. This time he has swapped the bus for a giant locomotive. He has hired high-price political consultants, some from the Bush entourage, tapped into a network of rich donors and established operations across the country. Yet the locomotive remains stubbornly stuck in the station. Mr McCain is trailing Rudy Giuliani by as much as 25 points. His attempt to build bridges with the right has alienated his former friends in the centre without converting conservatives. And he seems to be dogged by bad luck—his recent announcement that he is going to run, for example, was marred by his faux pas about American lives being “wasted” in Iraq. Why is the McCain express still immobile? The most important reason is the senator's outspoken support for George Bush's decision to send five more brigades to Iraq. This has not only put him on the wrong side of an unpopular war (two-thirds of the population oppose the “surge”); it has also strengthened the impression that he is speaking for the White House. The other reason is his botched transformation from maverick to establishment figure. Mr McCain tried to turn himself into the inevitable Republican champion by mending fences with all the people he had upset in the past—from the Bush camp to the religious right to conservative activists. This made sense after his failure of 2000 (remember the old adage that Democrats like to fall in love while Republicans like to fall in line). But it is proving hard to pull off, with independents accusing him of pandering and conservatives still nursing their old wounds. It would be a mistake, however, to think that Mr McCain will be static for ever. Mr Giuliani is a flawed front-runner. He has huge strengths as the architect of New York's turnaround and as the hero of September 11th 2001, to be sure. But he has equally huge weaknesses. His private life is tangled (his relationship with his son, Andrew, is so strained that he did not even turn up to his graduation). His business affairs are more tangled still. He has a foul temper and a mean streak as wide as the Hudson river. “Absolutely not,” was the response of Ed Koch, another former New York mayor and a political rival, to the suggestion that Mr Giuliani is a racist. “He's nasty to everybody.” Mr Giuliani also seems unprepared for a national campaign. Last week George Will introduced him to the annual meeting of CPAC—a gathering of more than 6,000 red-meat activists—by saying that conservatism comes in many flavours, with Mr Giuliani the Thatcherite one. A nice point. But the former mayor then delivered a meandering speech that left the audience dispirited. His campaign may collapse as quickly as it inflated. The Giuliani bubble is as much a proof of the weakness of the other anti-McCain candidates as it is a long-term threat to Mr McCain himself. The strongest competition to Mr McCain arguably came from Mitt Romney rather than Mr Giuliani (the rest of the candidates are midgets compared with the big three). Mr Romney has a long record of managerial competence—a huge selling point after George Bush's serial incompetences. He is also an efficient politician: his speech at CPAC was as smooth as Mr Giuliani's was ragged. But the failure of the Romney campaign to catch fire is good news for Mr McCain. Mr Romney's Mormonism is proving more of a problem than many people expected: a quarter of Americans claim that they would not vote for a Mormon. But what is really damaging him is his opportunistic flip-flopping over abortion and gay marriage. If he is willing to pander on these issues as a candidate, might he not pander as president? Conservative activists might warm to Mr McCain if they took another look at him. It is true that he has quarrelled with conservative pressure groups. But that is often because he sees them as obstacles to achieving conservative ends, such as a balanced budget or clean politics. It is true that Mr McCain refused to endorse the Federal Marriage Amendment. But he did so for the eminently conservative reason that these sorts of issues should be decided by the states rather than the federal government. It is true that Mr McCain has pushed for more federal funding for stem-cell research. But he has also been more consistently conservative on abortion than any of the other first-tier candidates. Conservatism's best hope Mr McCain has a rare ability to present conservative ideas in a language that moderates and independents can find appealing. He also has a rare ability to break with the conservative establishment on subjects where they are obviously batting on a losing wicket, such as global warming. This could make him the best candidate for reviving conservatism from its current dismal state—and also the best candidate for keeping conservatism alive in a Washington where the Democrats rule Capitol Hill. Mr McCain has also often been right about the war. He was one of the first major politicians to call for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. He repeatedly criticised George Bush's tolerance of torture as a stain on America's good name. Even his support for Mr Bush's “surge” may not be as much of a liability as it appears. The bulk of Republican primary voters are in favour of giving the war one last chance; and Mr McCain's willingness to risk his political career over Iraq burnishes his tarnished reputation as a straight-talker. His biggest weakness has to do with age rather than ideology. He will be 72 if he is elected to the White House, and his face is visibly scarred from bouts with skin cancer. But he has the energy and attitude of a much younger man, and seems to absorb energy from his audience. And he also boasts the most impressive biography in American politics. The McCain Express will not stay stuck in the station for ever. http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8819839 D&D. Trains, Planes, and Politics.
Regarding Rudy Sure seems like Rudy doesn't want to comment on anything these days. His campaign has no comment on the Attorney flap even though he's an X US Attorney. His campaign is silent and Rudy doesn’t want to comment on Pace's remarks regarding gays in the military. Eventually he's going to have to open his mouth and let us know where he stands on issues.
