This topic is of particular concern to me as an atheist.  Romney is absolutely correct that his faith should have no bearing on his 'electibility'.  And I would say the same about someone as batshit crazy as Mike Huckabee, in general.  It's when Huckabee's belief's, which in my judgment are no stranger than anyone of another faith, interfere with policy-making on a constitutional level that faith becomes a problem.  That Huckabee doesn't believe in evolution is of concern because it translates into an inability to analyze evidence and form sound conclusions, but then again, this could be said about any number of articles of faith.

Sincerely, and in Peace
Jason Call
http://www.Call4Democracy.org
Candidate, US Congress, New Mexico CD 1

But how about Rudy Giuliani explain about actually eating real flesh and blood of someone supposedly dead for 2000 years? Or if someone rises to Heaven where exactly Heaven is located?

It actually will aid the voter in showing what delusions a potential office-holder will admit to.

Every time some breathless tv anchor compares Romney's political drivel to JFK's speech I gag. I'm not sure why it was taken for more than it was: simple pandering to the right. Maybe it's the hair that throws them. I do, however, still love Thomas Jefferson.

Even the NY Times editorial page got the slight of hand. Kennedy said religion has no place in government. Romney said Christians have a place in government. That's a big difference. His gamble is that the mildly religious will be drawn to his side and that this will be a greater gain that the loss of those who don't want to see Christianity as a de facto state religion.

I'm guessing his calculation will not be in his favor.

Policies not Politics
--- Daily Landscape

Do we need another President detached from reality:

• That God is/was a flesh-and-blood man, with wives who now resides on a planet near a visible star.
• That elite Native Americans were really Jews despite all evidence being to the contrary.
• That their underwear is a holy vestment and to criticism or malign the article of clothing is Hate Speach and have passed laws as such in areas they hold sway.

I'm sorry, but if that isn't crazy stuff that places him to the outside of even President Bush on his relationship with reality. (not saying other religions aren't filled with similarly 'idiosyncratic' beliefs). So those of us in the 'reality-based community' should sacrifice our objections to this silliness, and other candidates equivalent silliness, on the alter of tolerance? To tolerate is different that to ignore. Just as I don't want a fundi christian or jew running the show, I wouldn't want a hardcore Mormon either.

• Oh, and the LDS Church only very recently (1978!) admitted that black folks aren't lesser beings and so could become priests in the church, despite being 'cursed' by their historic slavery.

First, as others in this thread have pointed out, Romney's speech was not embracing separation of church and state, which is what you affirm in your post. Instead, Romney was saying that Mormons have a legitimate place in America, since America is a Christian country, and Mormons are Christians. Of course, the proposition that Mormons are Christians is a blatant lie.

That brings me to the second point. Mormonism is not a religion: it is nothing but a made-in-America religious cult. If you tolerate Mormonism, you might as well tolerate agitators of the "right to life", neocons, and Bush enthusiasts in general. You write about Mormonism:

It's a strange faith, but it is only strange compared to more established faiths by virtue of it's relative historical newness. In the world of the Romans, Christianity was just as novel and just as bizarre.

To create a new religion in the modern age, as the Mormons did, or to follow such a religion, is nothing but lunacy. To treat it as something else, and indeed to claim that it deserves to be tolerated, as you claim, requires rejecting reason, which is the foundation of today's Republican Party. So if you want to argue that the Mormon "religion" deserves to be tolerated, you might as well go all the way and join the Republicans.