Mitt's Mormonism a Bigger Issue Than Rudy's Social Views?

I'd really hope that neither would be an issue, but this letter to Real Clear Politics from a Southern evangelical really gets you thinking. Even in the Deep South, Rudy is the preferred candidate:

I go to a very fundamentalist Southern Baptist Church. We have a membership of two thousand. We have had studies on the Mormon church. To put it very mildly, we consider it a devilish cult.

Now none of us are going to say that in public. And if Romney is running for President, he would get no votes in our church. The most powerful political medium in the Baptist church is the Men's Brotherhood Breakfast held one Sunday per month. We talk about the church mission projects, church politics, and secular politics. You can be assured Romney's Mormon faith will be discussed. Guess how many votes he'll get. Throughout the entire South all these Baptist churches have these breakfasts and politics is discussed. Romney's religion will be discussed.

Believe it or not, the most popular GOP candidate is Rudy Giuliani. McCain has little support because of campaign finance and he's too kootchy-kootchy with liberal Democrats.

That's the way it looks from the small-town Deep South.

The Quinnipiac thermometer poll found that Rudy was the most popular politician in America among Evangelicals, surprising even a diehard Rudy supporter like me. Could emails like this be one of the reasons why Romney '08 sounds better in theory than in practice?

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