According to author and radio personality Hewitt, Mitt Romney-billionaire venture capitalist, consummate family man, gifted and media-savvy politician-would be unstoppable in the coming presidential race were it not for one niggling line on his resumé: he's a Mormon. Hewitt attempts to refute the claim that no Mormon could get elected President (along with any other claim that might be made against Romney) while analyzing the former Massachusetts governor's biography and burnishing his conservative and leadership credentials. Hewitt is an agreeable writer, wise enough to take detours (such as an edifying primer on Mormon history and thought) that stave off tedium. He spends far more time extolling Romney than excoriating his Republican and Democratic opponents.

This book was written when Mitt Romney¿s star had risen as the 2008 presidential campaign got off to its very early start. With the higher profile have come the inevitable and necessary questions about Romney, a Mormon, answered by this book: What role did his father¿s failed presidential campaign play in shaping Romney? What is the ¿Bain Way,¿ and what¿s that got to do with Romney? Does leadership of the Olympic Games really matter in politics? What about his family? Was he a success as gov.' Is he really pro-life? Did he fight the good fight on marriage? What are his advantages as the campaign for the presidency begins? What are the handicaps? Those are the first 9 questions, and then there is the 10th question: ¿What about the Mormon Problem?¿

"In 1844, Joseph Smith, the controversial founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had amassed a national following of some 25,000 believers-and a militia of some 2,500 men. In this year, his priority was protecting the lives and civil rights of his people. Having failed to win the support of any of the presidential contenders for these efforts, Smith launched his own renegade campaign for the White House, one that would end with his assassination at the hands of an angry mob. Smith ran on a platform that called for the total abolition of slavery, the closure of the country's penitentiaries, the reestablishment of a national bank to stabilize the economy, and most importantly an expansion of protections for religious minorities. Spencer W. McBride tells the story of Smith's quixotic but consequential run for the White House and shows how his calls for religious freedom helped to shape the American political system we know today"--

Evaluates how the Mormon faith has shaped the political beliefs of the former Massachusetts governor and prospective Republican presidential candidate, identifying the ways in which his faith may be used to discredit his fitness for the presidency.

From Washington to Bush, each American president and his relationship with the Mormons is explored as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rises from obscurity to become a major political influence.

According to a Los Angeles Times / Bloomberg poll, 37% of Americans would not vote for a Mormon Presidential candidate. That statistic represents a major obstacle for Mitt Romney, a Mormon candidate in 2008. Niles A. Fuller explains why religion will not prevent the former Governor of Massachusetts from achieving his Presidential ambitions. Along the way, Fuller provides insights into Mormon beliefs and practices that will affect RomneyâÂÂs candidacy. For Republican voters, this is a must-read book.

How did we go from John F. Kennedy declaring that religion should play no role in the elections to Bush saying, "I believe that God wants me to be president"? Historian Randall Balmer takes us on a tour of presidential religiosity in the last half of the twentieth century—from Kennedy's 1960 speech that proposed an almost absolute wall between American political and religious life to the soft religiosity of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society; from Richard Nixon's manipulation of religion to fit his own needs to Gerald Ford's quiet stoicism; from Jimmy Carter's introduction of evangelicalism into the mainstream to Ronald Reagan's co-option of the same group; from Bill Clinton's covert way of turning religion into a non-issue to George W. Bush's overt Christian messages, Balmer reveals the role religion has played in the personal and political lives of these American presidents. Americans were once content to disregard religion as a criterion for voting, as in most of the modern presidential elections before Jimmy Carter.But today's voters have come to expect candidates to fully disclose their religious views and to deeply illustrate their personal relationship to the Almighty. God in the White House explores the paradox of Americans' expectation that presidents should simultaneously trumpet their religious views and relationship to God while supporting the separation of church and state. Balmer tells the story of the politicization of religion in the last half of the twentieth century, as well as the "religionization" of our politics. He reflects on the implications of this shift, which have reverberated in both our religious and political worlds, and offers a new lens through which to see not only these extraordinary individuals, but also our current political situation.