The Big Speech On (Why There's Not Enough) Faith In America

Mitt Romney is giving his big speech on faith tomorrow. Considering that he was browbeat into giving the speech by the media because of perceived concern about his Mormon beliefs, the reasonable expectation would be that it would be about Mormonism. That's where you would be wrong.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said Monday that he would not focus on his Mormon beliefs in a major speech on religion this week and instead would discuss his concern that "faith has disappeared from the public square."

In other words, this big speech is about how there's not ENOUGH religion in public life, under the guise of calming fears that Romney would use his religion to inform the decisions he'd make in public life.

And incredibly, Romney is claiming that he was "inspired" by the JFK speech on the separation of church and state, which is the OPPOSITE of his speech.

Inspired by a speech given in September 1960 by Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy, whose Roman Catholic beliefs engendered fears among Protestants that as president he would put the church's teachings ahead of the national interest, Romney wrote his address Thursday in his hotel suite in Boca Raton, Fla., a spokesman said [...]

On Monday, Romney called Kennedy's address "the definitive speech" on politics and religion.

"What he said makes sense to me," Romney said.

What he said makes sense to me, so I'm going to deliver a speech about how we're a religious nation and we have to maintain our religious heritage "in the public square." You know, NOT what Kennedy said.

That should be a fun speech.