so having failed to make barack obama a muslim, republicans led now by mitt romney are hellbent on making him an atheist. and here s why. in the politics of religion in this country, the only thing that s worse than being a mormon or a muslim in the eyes of our extremely religiously intolerant electorate is being an atheist.
attacking the president s religious beliefs. romney must accuse the president of trying to create a new religion, a religion newer than mitt romney s. religiously mitt romney lives in the glass house of american politics. that s what these polls tell us. 22% unwilling to vote for a mormon for president. mitt romney knows that the press wouldn t let him get away now with accusing barack obama with being a secret muslim, which is an even bigger glass house in american politics. polls show that 46% of voters would be reluctant to vote for a muslim candidate. so instead of calling barack obama a muslim mitt romney is now calling him an atheist. i think there is a desire to establish a religion in america known as secularism. and i know that based upon reports the obama administration gave this a lot of thought, a lot of discussion.
problem. let s take a look at just how bad mitt romney s religion problem is. here s a poll showing voter reluctance based on a candidate s religion. you see, catholicism puts a 7% drag on a candidacy. with 7% of voters saying they would not vote for a catholic. it s the same with a baptist. 7%. a little more reluctance for a jewish candidate, 9%. and then a huge jump, more than double with with 22% of voters unwilling to vote for a mormon candidate. that s in an election that s going to be decided by one or two percentage points. so what does mitt romney do with his religion problem? he doesn t just attack president obama s religion, he invents a whole new religion, a religion
committee off-loading some overhead and expenses to the national committee. so at this point when rick santorum has no chance of being the nominee and mitt romney for sure is going to be the nominee, it s good for this to start winding down. i think that rick santorum is going to be under a lot of pressure not to do more injury, not to do more damage in a race that he has no plausible chance of winning. chuck todd, steve schmidt, rachel maddow, thank you for joining me tonight. come ing up the president was unleashed today in a sfeech in washington, specifically unleashed on paul ryan and mitt romney by name. that s next. in the rewrite tonight, another episode in the politics of religion. mitt romney knows the polls show he has a religion problem, so he s trying to create a religion problem for president obama. some of mitt s supporters might think the president is a secret muslim, but mitt is now saying that the president is a secret
religion problem for president obama. a political religion problem. that s what we re talking about here. romney has a political religion problem. this is romney s attempt to swiftboat the president on religion. this is a much used page of the republican playbook. we saw it used against john kerry, who is a decorated war hero and combat veteran of the vietnam war. george w. bush took the more practiced route for the sons of privilege at the time by avoiding service in vietnam while being kolgcoddled in a national guard unit in texas. compared to john kerry, george w. bush had a war problem, as in experience at war, as in showing courage under fire literally under fire. george w. bush had carefully avoided combat while john kerry risked his life on the battlefield and so, of course, the republicans attacked john kerry s combat record. they took george w. bush s problem and made it john kerry s