January 9, 2007 4:15 PM
- Text
Katie Couric's Notebook: A Mormon President?
Hi, everyone.
Video: Is America ready to elect a Mormon as president?
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney may soon find out; he's considering a run for the White House.
But one poll says 43% of Americans would never support a Mormon.
Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn told us that skepticism of Romney is so great, he may face the choice of having to "deny his allegiance to the church and appear to be pandering" or "maintaining that allegiance and jeopardize his chances."
In 1960, John Kennedy made Americans comfortable with Catholicism...which, at the time, raised about as many doubts as Mormonism does now.
But while about a quarter of the American people were Catholic in 1960, Mormons comprise less than two percent of the population today.
Whatever happens, a Romney candidacy might serve to do what Kennedy's did nearly 50 years ago: educate Americans about a faith that is often stereotyped more than understood.
That's a page from my notebook.
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