Religion and Presidential Politics: A Modest Proposal

Chris Cillizza's Friday Line has re-appeared. If you've forgotten what the Line is, it's a weekly handicapping of the presidential candidates' ups and downs. Here's what he said about Mitt Romney:

The Massachusetts governor had a nice year of his own, unfortunately capped off by broad Republican losses in gubernatorial races, including in his home state. While McCain has released the names of his '08 supporters in drips and drabs, Romney has gone for shock and awe with his announcements -- massive lists in Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan filled with impressive and influential names. Romney is the best raw candidate in the Republican field and he is the equal of Obama and Edwards when it comes to charisma. He still must answer doubts among conservatives about his time in Massachusetts and seeming flip-flops on some social questions. And then there is the Mormon question to which we have no answer just yet. (Emphasis added.)

In response, a commenter to the post named "bmart" had this precious nugget for us:

Mitt Romney is not qualified to be President and Commander-in-Chief because his bizarre religious beliefs demonstrate he can't be counted on to be a rational decision-maker. Carrying the logic a step further, any candidate who accepts supernatural religious notions from 2000 years ago is equally incompetent.

In fact, since most of the worlds' religions are based on, founded on, or tolerate beliefs that cannot be proven in a court of law or by science, no individual of any religious persuasion should occupy the Oval Office. That leaves us a pool of Atheists from which to draw for prospective Presidents.

But alas, what if there really is a God of some sort--then to have shown such poor judgement on such an important topic should certainly disqualify non-believers. Perhaps the only answer is a constitutional amendment removing the entire office of the Presidency and leave the running of the country to Congress and the Courts. The Presidency is too dangerous a position to have either a religious or non-religious person therein.

Heh.