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  • Frank Lockwood is the religion editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Frank is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Idaho College of Law. In 2004, he received a Knight Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan. A native of Oregon, Frank has been a reporter in Idaho, Kentucky and Washington, D.C.

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ArkansasOnline | Bible Belt Blog Home

Romney to give THE SPEECH on religion

Posted December 2, 2007

Bible Belt Blogger: Romney to give THE SPEECH on religion

Frank Lockwood

Trailing in the latest polls in Iowa, GOP presidential candidate will give talk about his faith during a speech at the George Herbert Walker Bush presidential library in Texas on Thursday. This is a bonanza for Romney -- all the cable news channels will cover it live -- for free -- and he'll be the top story of the news cycle. Look for much of the coverage to be sympathetic.

Here's my prediction. The speech will be carefully prepared and carefully focus-grouped and the New York Times will praise it lavishly. Unfortunately, for Gov. Romney, it's pretty much irrelevant whether or not the New York Times likes it. Gov. Romney doesn't need to sway a Manhattan editorial board [especially in the Republican primaries...] He needs to sway evangelical and born again Christians. They're the ones who need convincing right now.

There is a danger that, in the echo chamber of the East Coast media, the speech may get rave reviews and still be a failure, if it doesn't sway social conservatives. To tell whether the speech has worked, we'll need to see some poll numbers from evangelicals in the heartland. Then we'll need to see the exit polls in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Also, a successful speech on religion won't necessary solve the problems this campaign has encountered with social conservatives. Gov. Romney faces not only questions about his religion, but about his reliability and trustworthiness on 'pro-family' issues.

I'm not sure why major politicians always go to Texas to give their big religion speeches. JFK gave his speech in Houston in 1960 and Ronald Reagan gave his speech in Dallas in 1980. That's the speech where Reagan told the Religious Roundtable (a gathering of leading evangelical leaders), "You can't endorse me, but I want you to know I endorse you." Reagan won the crowd over, and months later, evangelicals voted in massive numbers for the Republican presidential nominee.