The Daily Troika: '08 Buzz Of The Day
Fact: the Boston Globe will cover Gov. Mitt Romney's presidential campaign closer and harder than any other local paper will cover their favorite sons or daughters. (Just ask John Kerry, Michael Dukakis and Jim Jordan).
Fact: the Globe's story this morning, suggesting that organized interests within the LDS church are open to use resources affiliated with the church to help Romney is the first of many stories that will question Romney's political relationship with the church.
Fact: the Globe story, read closely, does not suggest that anyone in the church did anything wrong or illegal, or that Romney's aides acted improperly. Fact: Bishops of Mormon churches are forbidden from using church directories for politics, which means that Romney needs to find other ways to collect LDS church membership lists across the country.
Fact: the accounts of Romney's advisers conflict in the story in way that's bound to extend the lifetime of the story, which means that the Romney universe (at an early stage, to be sure) lacks the rules and discipline that characterize smooth-functioning and tight presidential campaigns. (CF "The Way To Win") . Fortunately, there's plenty of time.
Fact: Gov. Mike Huckabee, in saying that some GOP govs "are accepting" that they'll lose ground, but that he's "not ready to just throw in the towel" was directly criticizing Romney.
Even pros like John McCain need to be reminded by their handlers that there are some phrases you have be very careful with. -- What McCain meant, as he clarified moments later, was that he does not support state-sanction marriage between gay people. He has no problem with committment ceremonies. Left unsaid is whether he supports any effort to extend federal benefits to those same-gender couples who participate in civil unions.
Yet another instance of the Boston Globe puting on their anti-religious tin foil hats. These folks don't have facts to run on, so they publish conspiracy theories about what religious conservatives might be talking about. Typical for the uber-liberal press.
Throw the spagetti on the wall, see what sticks. The fact is, their empty suspicions are the best "dirt" they can get on Romney. This is like an early mudslinging campaign where they're scraping for pebbles.