Romney speech earns mostly positive reviews

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s (R) speech on his Mormon faith won almost universally positive reactions, and advisors inside the campaign say they were more than happy with the outcome.

A senior adviser to the Romney campaign said the speech made staffers “proud” to work for the former governor, and the campaign was hearing positive reactions from “leaders in the faith community, too.”

{mosads}Asked if there was a sense of relief within the campaign after even Romney conceded his advisers were divided on whether Romney should give such a speech, the adviser said, “it was more about finality.”

The advisor said the speech offered Romney’s “definitive perspective on the issue of his faith and faith in the American public square.”

“Up until this point everyone else had contributed to the debate, and now that the governor has spoken, there is a touchstone of his beliefs,” the adviser said.

Connie Mackey, executive director of the Family Research Council, said she and others thought Romney gave “the speech that he needed to.”

“I think he probably put some people at ease,” Mackey said. “And there are some who will probably never be at ease with his religion or with him.”

Mackey said she thinks the speech will probably “have some positive effect” of bringing some evangelical Christians back into Romney’s camp that might have defected to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s team amid concerns over Romney’s approach to faith in governance.

The Family Research Council newsletter also included a reaction that was for the most part positive, although it offered vague reservations.

“It would be an illusion to think that any single speech could assuage every concern or end the thriving discussions Americans have about these issues,” the newsletter said. “In fact, no single speech should even try to accomplish that.”

Even some religious groups not generally in the GOP camp commended Romney for his remarks, though some lamented his unwillingness to include those without faith.

“This speech is exactly the kind of conversation that we would hope candidates running for president would have with the American people on the role of faith in public life,” Rev. C. Welton Grady, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said in a statement. “While I may disagree with some of the points made in the speech, including his lack of acknowledgement of the values and contributions of the non-religious among us, I appreciate the overall tone.”

Early reaction on the Hill seemed to be complimentary as well, particularly among members backing Romney’s bid.

“Values voters like myself are not concerned when choosing a political leader with theological differences; we are determined that a man's beliefs inform and shape his values — consistent with the great American Judeo-Christian creed,” Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) said. “Just as the pilgrims fled religious intolerance and as our Founders rejected religious litmus tests, decent American voters will reject hidden theological requirements.”

Throughout the week, a number of evangelical leaders and Republican pollsters laid out what they saw as goals Romney should try to accomplish though the speech. By most counts, Romney hit all of them.

Earlier in the week, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said Romney’s goal should be to remind the American people that the country does not have a religious test required to hold office. Land also said Romney should say he was not going to “attempt to defend my faith, nor should I be expected to.”

In fact, Romney hit both those points as prime themes in his speech.

With that accomplished, Land said Romney’s speech “inoculates him against a constant barrage of questions about beliefs of Mormonism that most Americans are going to find strange.”