Monday morning open thread

It was a balmy 80 degrees in DC yesterday, and another 80 expected today, and I was all ready to go walk the dog when CNN called and wanted me to go on and talk about #OccupyWallStreet and Mitt Romney's Mormonism, all in the space of 4 minutes. So, Sasha got to hang out in the bathroom (aka, her den) a few hours, and I got to argue the finer points of two entirely different subjects with a right-wing blogger in too short a time period.

I really am fascinated by what's happening with the OWS movement. It'll be very interesting to see whether it has staying power, whether it keeps growing, and to what degree people feel the movement represents people like them. I'm still trying to get a sense of who the people are going to the protests, I haven't heard of anyone I know going, so it will be interesting to see where all of this is heading. At CNN they were interested in whether this would be an issue for next year's elections, and it already has become one - Obama, Pelosi, Romney and Cantor (and Cain, but whatever) have all commented on it. If this movement is a sincere expression of the frustration, fear and anger that a lot of Americans are feeling right now about our economy and our future, then it could change the electoral map next year. Maybe.

As for Romney, I hadn't realized, until I did a little Googling before my CNN appearance, that he had criticized Obama seeking religious guidance form Rev. Wright. So Romney isn't on very good ground to claim that his religion, Mormonism, which many people don't feel is a religion at all, is somehow now off-limits. And Romney has another problem - the Republican party. A lot of the evangelicals who now run the GOP, and who make up a big chunk of Republican primary voters, don't think Catholics are Christian. Imagine how they feel about Mormons.

Romney has been happy to play the religion card when it suited him, and the GOP loves talking about God - well, at least the white male evangelical version of the Lord who seems to have a distinct disdain for an awful lot of people. At some point, the GOP's love affair with a single somewhat extreme segment of Christianity, at the expense of all the other Christians, believers, and nonbelievers alike who also live in this country, is going to come home to roost. And for Mitt Romney, that day may have arrived.