"It troubles me not that a Mormon might be president"

So says Cal Thomas in his Thursday column. He goes on to say that "It does trouble me a great deal that so many people would think a person's faith - whether one shares it or not - should be the only reason to deny someone the presidency."

That troubles me too, but I'm not willing to throw in the towel on Romney's campaign over it. First of all, I chalk up those poll numbers to unfamiliarity. How many voters know any Mormons let alone have had the chance to vote for one?

Second, if Romney's biggest hurdle is this one single issue he might end up getting a pass on other things, including his evolving stances on certain social issues.

Third, related to the above, a lot of what I'm reading and hearing is along the lines of "he's perfect, but he's Mormon." Take away the "...but he's Mormon" and you're left with "he's perfect." If the attention is consistently focused on his religion then a Kennedy-esque speech could single-handedly make it a non-issue. The fact that he will get a lot of sympathetic press like this will help.

I won't be surprised if all of this helps him in the long run.