Governor Mitt Romney and Hunting

An online story today reported that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, one of the crowded field of hopefuls gunning for the Republican Party Presidential nomination, took a potshot at fellow hopeful Mitt Romney by suggesting that Romney was disingenuous in telling people at a campaign stop last week that he had been a hunter nearly all his life when, in fact, he has never had a hunting license. This one-day, or even one-hour, blip story gives insight into the struggle of minor candidates (i.e., Huckabee) to get recognition, the pressure for candidates to tell audiences what they want to hear and, most of all, the things that audiences seemingly want to hear.

Romney as Candidate

Mitt Romney's credentials for a White House bid are impressive--son of a Governor and Presidential Candidate, Republican governor of a state with only 15% of the population registered Republican (a whopping 50% are independents), chiseled looks, a nice wife and family, immense personal wealth, connections galore among the rich and influential, etc. His candidacy will test whether America is ready at this point to embrace a Latter-Day Saint as President. The LDS's, or Mormons, now number more than 7 million in the US alone but because of their historical isolation in the Mountain West and stories of persecution and victimization which are at the heart of Mormon identity, have not really yet been accepted in mainstream America in large numbers. Yet, as one who has had dozens of LDS law students in the last few years, I can say that they have traits of fidelity, spirituality, hard-work, team-spirit and prosperity-mindedness deeply engrained in their consciousness, and most want nothing more than to be considered as good, loyal Americans.

But there will be very interesting religious dynamics in the next year or so, especially if Romney looks like he will win the Republican nomination. The "unofficial" debate will center on whether Mormons are, in fact, Christians. I have written on that subject at length, in which I answered that question with a simple "Of course" answer. Yet ultimately an LDS candidate will only be able to become President to the extent that he downplays the importance of his religion as shaping his mode of governance. What I mean by that is that he must first show himself as good American, with "Mormon" or "LDS" in small letters next to American. John Kennedy's attempt to do that with his Catholicism in 1960 was singularly effective, and his model must inform the way that Romney conceives of his candidacy. Specifically, he will have to say, "I will not take orders from Salt Lake City, the LDS Church, President Hinckley, etc. etc."

I think the "polygamy" issue, which has already flittled across the Internet (i.e., that Romney's ancestors were polygamists both in Utah and Mexico) will really have little traction; what will have traction is whether Romney can convince people that he is American first and LDS second.

Now, To Hunting

One of the ways you try to convince people that you are just like them, that you are just a loyal American yourself, is to say that you engage in the kind of activities which they love. Many Americans love to hunt and fish. Many Americans love NASCAR. Many Americans love football. Many love their guns. So, in order to win the votes of Americans, you have to show yourself sympathetic to lots of these things. This, apparently, is what Romney did last week at a campaign stop, where he said that he had been a hunter nearly all his life. In answer to a man sporting a National Rifle Association cap in NH on 4/3, Romney said, "I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I've been a hunter pretty much all my life." He also said later, with respect to one of the two hunting expeditions he had been on in his life, "I knocked quite a few birds and enjoyed myself a great deal." Just one of the boys, right?

The easiest, and probably correct, interpretation of this is that Romney is simply trying to get the NRA vote. He knows that the gun-toting, and Jesus-loving, Republicans are the ones he has to convince in order to win the nomination. Yet, apart from the irony that one has to boast of killing things in order to win voters, Romney's image and reality belie this claim. By making this claim, he steps on the "smaller" Huckabee, who is going for the same voters as is Romney but without nearly the same amount of cash or credibility. Thus, Huckabee squealed. Politics as usual.

Straightforwardness

If I were an advisor to Governor Romney at this point, I would urge straightforwardness on him. He has already strained some credulity with his "conversion" to an across-the-board conservative social agenda after his strong support for abortion rights in the 1990s, when it looks like it simply is posturing to get the right wing support in the Republican party. Now, this little incident in NH makes it look as if he will go to any lengths to secure support. But he could have tried to secure NRA support without being disingenuous; he simply could have said that he wasn't much of a hunter but he deeply respected individual rights to own firearms. It is still very early in the 2008 campaign, and I imagine that he, along with the rest of the candidates, will learn how to answer questions more skillfully as the campaign wears on. And he ought to do so. "Straight-arrowness" is such an important part of LDS culture that most Mormon males aren't comfortable with giving explanations they know aren't "straight." Thus, when US Sen. Gordon Smith, (R-OR), a Mormon, described his conscience-wrestling with respect to the Iraq War before opposing it (conveniently after the 2006 elections), it really wasn't so much a matter of scruples that was in play--but a respect to the traditions of Oregon people, who elected peace-loving Mark Hatfield to the Senate six times. Thus, Sen. Smith also seemed disingenous in trying to give a "lofty" explanation of his change of heart.

Learn to be straightforward, even if you as a politician need to tell little untruths at times. Thus, even though this story will disappear as soon as tomorrow's news rushes in on us, we ought to let its lessons sink in on us. Let those skilled in dissimulation dissimulate. You, Governor Romney, try to tell things in a straightforward way. America will appreciate it, even if we may not yet be ready to elect an LDS President.

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