Frank Newport, the “Gallup Guru” you see all the time on CNN, has some interesting numbers about Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Bottom line: 62% of Republicans say they would be “afraid” if she is elected president.
Unfortunately, Newport doesn’t show a breakdown by religion, but since religious conservatives make up at least one-quarter of the GOP base, it’s safe to conclude the evangelicals would be among those shaking in their boots at the prospect of another Clinton White House.
But in glancing at Newport’s analysis, I stumbled across his compilation of voters’ feelings about a Mormon president. One of the more interesting was the parallels between Romney’s race and the ghosts of his father’s 1968 campaign:
6. As far back as 1967, only three-quarters of Americans said they would vote for an otherwise well qualified person who was a Mormon. This year – some 40 years later-the results to this question are almost exactly the same.
It’s interesting that among most categories, Americans’ willingness to vote for a candidate in various categories has risen shaprly over time, except for Mormons (according to recent Gallup data):
a Jew: 91% (up from 82% in 1967);
an atheist: 46% (up slightly from 40% in 1967);
an African American: 93% (up from 53% in 1967);
a Catholic: 93% (already high from 90% in post-JFK 1967);
a homosexual: 56% (up from 26% in 1978, the earliest date Gallup had available)
a woman: 86% (up from 57% in 1967)
A Mormon: 80% (up from 75% in 1967)
Looks like Mitt Romney also has a few things to worry about.