Originally published Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011, at MuddyPolitics.com.
A majority of Americans don’t know that Mitt Romney is Mormon.
Unlike in 2008, Romney isn't wearing his faith on his sleeve...or his forehead. According to the a Public Religion Research Institute poll, 42 percent of Americans can correctly identify Romney’s religious faith, while 45 percent admitted they didn’t know. Another 10 percent falsely answered that he is Protestant, Catholic, “something else” or “not religious.”
When a Pew Research Center poll in early October showed that Romney is less known as the frontrunner in the 2012 Republican presidential race (27 percent) than he was as a third-tier, third-place finisher in the 2008 election cycle (30 percent), I put forth a theory that Romney’s under-the-radar campaign presence was more of a “victory-by-default” strategy than it was a casualty or a curse.
With his unflattering record of flip-flopping on hot-button issues, his unconventional religious views and his awkwardness when courting voters during off-camera public events, staying out of the limelight (including foregoing the presidential straw polls, as he’s done) serves to perpetuate the public’s disinterest in and ignorance of the Republican nomination contest.
And maybe that’s the point.
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