Romney's religious speech

Mike Allen and Jonathon Martin:

Mitt Romney decided to deliver a major speech about his religious faith after concluding attention to his Mormonism would only intensify in potentially unflattering ways in the crucial weeks ahead. But even some of his top aides see the speech as a wildly unpredictable gamble.

Aides were split over the wisdom of elevating the Mormon issue even more, and the campaign goes into the speech with barely disguised trepidation.

Romney, however, is excited to finally be fighting back, advisers said.

The speech, titled “Faith in America,” is potentially at war with the campaign’s longtime precept that it is not a winning strategy for Romney to be identified primarily as the Mormon candidate in a Republican race dominated by Christian voters.

His challenge on Thursday morning will be to allay reservations of evangelicals, a huge bloc in the early-voting states of Iowa and South Carolina, while not making his own religion the defining issue in the wild race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Romney decided last week that he would have no regrets – that he must contest what he considers ignorant attacks on his religion, which have been both subtle and overt.

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I don't think this speech is that big of a risk, unless he uses to try to persuade people to be Mormons which is highly unlikely. There is nothing in his political career that suggest he would use his office to advance his religious affiliation. Whatever his faith, he appears to be a descent man who lives an honorable life. And, judging by his ambiguous passions on some hot button issues, he is unlikely to head too far from the mainstream of political opinion.

The Bush Library where he will be giving the speech is not too far from Washington, Texas so I may try to go cover the speech first hand. I will try to keep you posted on whether I can get in for the speech, although I have a feeling it will probably be carried by the cable news outlets.

Jay Costs is less charitable in looking at the Romney speech. As he points out, Romney has been the most likely of the GOP candidates to go negative on his primary opponents.