Which is worse: Rich Mormon patriarchy or obnoxious, unethical buffoonery?

I honestly cannot imagine how any intelligent American could bring him- or herself to vote for either Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich.

But I've certainly been surprised before (examples at bottom). Americans have shown time and again that when it comes to voting, they can be downright stupid, like their candidates. They blame Obama for not fixing the nation's ills without remembering that it was a Republican presidency and congress that built the huge mess. And how many could clean up an eight-year-old mess in four years?

So now their options are voting for a filthy rich Mormon (I read today that if you add up all the incomes of the past eight presidents and doubled that amount, you'd be close to Romney's millions...and that he is 50 times richer than President Obama) or an outlandish, morally bankrupt buffoon. I won't waste any time on Santorum or Paul--they are even more scary but do not have a hope of winning the Republican race. (I won't be surprised if Paul runs as an independent, though--Romney's worst nighmare.)

Romney seems to be the least of the evils, in many ways, even though he is completely out of touch with regular middle-class Americans (not to mention poor or working-class ones). But frankly, his Mormonism makes me nervous, as Sally Denton agrees in this New York Times blog post. I'm sure his Mormonism scares many fundamentalists, too, who believe that Mormonism is a cult. As bad as Bush Senior and Junior were, at least they both had intelligent wives who were not scared to share their opinions. In the Mormon religion, women are less than second-class citizens and cannot ascend to heaven unless they are married. They rarely work outside the home once they have children, and the male is the clear, unquestioned leader of the family. A Mitt Romney cabinet and staff would have very few women and you can bet they would be mostly Mormons. Mormons tend to hire and financially support other Mormons.

Then we have our friend Newt, who only knows how to get out of a marriage by having an affair when his wife is sick...and who loves to draw attention to himself by saying the most obnoxious thing he can think of...and who thinks nothing of conflicts of interest or representing interests that are paying him.

None of them are presidential material. And now the campaign has sunk to new lows with its bitter attacks. Even veteran Republicans are disgusted with the name calling. I just pray that Americans do the right thing and elect the only honorable man in November.



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