The Other Side of Romney?

Mitch Davis, founder of RunMittRun.org and producer of "The Other Side of Heaven" is planning to film a Documentary on Romney that follows him on the campaign trail. Needless to say this has potential for alot of good. Davis, if you saw The Other Side of Heaven, is a high quality film maker.

With this project Davis has hired California polster Gary Lawrence to do some polling in South Carolina. This polling produced some interesting findings that no doubt will have to be addressed along the way. An article in the Salt Lake Tribune states:

In a telephone poll of 600 registered voters July 6 through 10, Lawrence Research found that 44 percent of that state's voters believe Mormons still practice polygamy and 27 percent believe the faithful worship church founder and prophet Joseph Smith.

I don't find these statistics that surprising. Undoubtedly though, some misconceptions are more dangerous than others and the 44% who believe the LDS still practice polygamy is a tough one.

The Religion issue and Romney will be a fine line to walk no doubt. The Tribune article makes a good point, it could backfire. Romney's supporters could easily go over board on this by pushing it too much. Pushing it too much could easily cause the anti-mormon factions to hit back stronger, or worse cause the general publc to tire of Romney and see his campaign as a proselyting effort.

But in my opinion it is possible for the supporters to handle the topic in a successful way. One is to do what Davis is doing by working to promote a positive nature of Romney that doesn't involve direct discussions of his religion. Another way to "walk the line" is to promote the positive in the LDS religion while staying away from doctrinal arguments. This should definitely be done tactfully and sparingly.

Want to hurt Romney? Start defending LDS doctrine through online bashing.