misspelled: Castro, sorry.
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Missed Opportunity
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For me, the least persuasive part of the speech was his appeal to a "common ground" of American values. The three he listed—"equality of human kind, the obligation to serve one another and a steadfast commitment to liberty"—are fine, but they codify the moral side of American civil religion in its most banal form. His embrace of the current president's favorite slogan, "liberty is a gift of God," was particularly unfortunate. Perhaps Romney was only paying his respects to George W. Bush, but in doing so he aligns himself with the president's theologically shaky justification for the mess in Iraq.
But then, of course Romney was speaking in the library built for the first President Bush, a choice of venue that gave the event the aspect of a Republican rally, and at a morning hour that assured him of a minuscule television audience. Who were those people in the audience who applauded so loudly and so often? One can only gather they were not the conservative evangelicals Romney was trying to woo. There were no questions from his listeners, as there were when Catholic John F. Kennedy took his own plea for religious tolerance to an auditorium of Protestant ministers.
This was a speech to a Republican choir but one aimed at moving pew sitters far away in primary states. And until their votes are cast we won't know if any of them were listening.
© 2007
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