you start with article vi to the constitution, which says there s no religious test to serve in public office. we were the first nation in the history of western civilization to say that you couldn t prohibit somebody from serving in office because they were a baptist or they were catholic or they were jewish or in governor romney s case because he s a member of the church of latter-day saints. and i just feel very strongly about that. and i think furthermore if you look at the polling greta, this often isn t understood, but if you actual look at the pew research data, the gallup data, the bias and bigotry against a mormon candidate is much more on the left it is on the right. it s mostly secular left of center voters in opposition to the social values of mormons much more than it is evangelical protestants. greta: reading the numbers, 28% of the electorate in 2008 were evangelicals, which is a
you start with article vi to the constitution, which says there s no religious test to serve in public office. we were the first nation in the history of western civilization to say that you couldn t prohibit somebody from serving in office because they were a baptist or they were catholic or they were jewish or in governor romney s case because he s a member of the church of latter-day saints. and i just feel very strongly about that. and i think furthermore if you look at the polling greta, this often isn t understood, but if you actual look at the pew research data, the gallup data, the bias and bigotry against a mormon candidate is much more on the left it is on the right. it s mostly secular left of center voters in opposition to the social values of mormons much more than it is evangelical protestants. greta: reading the numbers, 28% of the electorate in 2008 were evangelicals, which is a
richard, the vote he s talking about, evangelical vote in 2008, 26% of the electorate identified themselves as evangelical, 73% voted for mccain. that could be a significant vote. well, it s not clear if he s talking about seven points high or 7% higher. i don t know what states he s thinking about either. you know, the critical question here is, not just whether you can believe someone like ralph reed and whether his operations really work. it s also in a way the tactics involved. we know from extensive polling as well as anecdotally and culturally that evangelicals don t favor a mormon candidate, to be blunt. but what he s trying to do, if this mailer is any indication of his tactic, is drive up, not a reason to vote for mitt romney, but the reasons for voting against president obama.
going to be a better world? that is unbelievable. i have no idea how that even registers. you would think even the brothers that don t like to vote might show up. some kind of percentage. it s unbelievable. even john mccain got some black votes. that s like is romney going to get any black people to step up, is he going to get into double digits at all with just voters? it s tough, there may be brothers that vote for them, and they might regret it and then ask for them back, so you might get negative black votes. you never know. you recently compared mitt romney s mormonism to obama s blackness. explain that. they re both unique. we never had a mormon candidate for president before. it s more exotic than this is blackness. i think more people know about
i m don lemon. you re in the cnn newsroom. want to get you up to speed on the day s news. towering flames sending colorado families fleeing for their lives. just a week after igniting the waldo canyon fire is already colorado s most destructive. thousands of people are holding their breath nervously waiting to see if their home has been spared. i m leaving my house. for probably the last time. oh, my god. there s splomoke in the air so . see if i can pull through here. this hill was on fire just a second ago. there are flames over here. two people are now dead and 350 homes destroyed. we ll go live to colorado in just a moment. millions of people this hour are dealing with the effects of extreme weather. power is out across parts of nine states at last night s wave of storms fueled by the intense heat killed at least 11 people. more on the heat and the storm damage in just one minute here on cnn. egypt welcomed a new era today. inaugurating its first democratically elec