Think back to November 2004. President Bush just won reelection. Most actively religious people in the U.S. were cheering. Many, a minority, of sincerely religious people were not. They spent a lot of time pondering the issue of why so many religious people voted for Bush and other Republicans. Hundreds of articles and a long list of books were written on the subject. How could the Left get religious people to vote for Leftists? (Don’t you remember the amusing scene of Hillary Clinton reminding everybody how religious she really is?)

Now, fast forward to 2006.

This article just published in Slate makes the point better than I can.

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This column from Iowa included an interesting comment on Mitt Romney:

One year from now, the state GOP will hold its all-important straw poll in Ames. It’s a survey that in the past has knocked poor finishers out of the presidential race. Romney is already at work trying to win it.

He has made more than a half-dozen trips to the state and lined up some of the best political talent in the Iowa GOP to work for him. While some experts say Romney’s Mormon faith will hurt him with some voters, it seemed to be helping him here Saturday. Romney organizers said several church members showed up and are deciding on their own to volunteer. “We don’t have to work it,” said a key operative. “It works itself.”

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I’m currently working in New York, and there is something unique on what seems like every street corner here: people passing out Jews for Jesus literature. Some of the literature is actually quite clever. So, in the tradition of these pamphlets, I will ask the denizens of the Bloggernacle to consider a provocative question: are Jews for Jesus allies of Mormons or not?

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Mormon Jeopardy icon Ken Jennings has been finding out that blogging can be hazardous to your public image. Take a look here. Ken also got ripped by the NY Post here. Ken responded yesterday pointing out that his comments were, um, tongue in cheek. The trouble all started with Ken’s blog entry here. My take: it’s pretty obvious that Ken was engaging in parody, but I’m not sure of the purpose of his blog post. There were a few funny lines, but why even be perceived to make fun of Jeopardy? Standard “public relations protocol” calls for Ken to only say completely nice things about the show that brought him fame. Yes, he’s smarter than most people, but there are a lot of readers who simply aren’t going to catch on to his sense of humor. If he had asked my opinion, I would have said: “stay away from any jokes about Jeopardy and Alex Trebek.” I’m willing to be convinced I’m wrong. What do you Bloggernacle types think?