STAR PARKER COMMENTARY: The Doubts About Romney Remain

Despite his speech last week trying to dispel doubt among Republican primary voters about his Mormon faith, asserts the conservative Republican commentator: "I think that Romney and his team overestimated the extent to which his Mormonism has been what is troubling his candidacy and underestimated the extent to which his credibility has been the real problem. Despite outspending all the other candidates, the Romney candidacy hasn't ignited. By contrast, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has maintained his lead in national polls, despite a background of three marriages, estranged children, pictures of himself in drag, open support for gays, open support for abortion, having endorsed a Democratic candidate for governor of New York, and support for gun control. But Giuliani has not been running as a traditional conservative candidate. Romney has. What dogs Romney is a sense that he is not being honest about who he is. In an election such as this, where voters clearly are concerned about honesty and transparency, candidates who do not score well in these areas are paying a price. In Romney's case, that price reflects his credibility challenge in convincing religious conservatives that his changed positions on abortion and gays are for real."

Ms. Parker continues her commentary: "Given persistent doubts about the sincerity of Romney's stands on these two issues, both of central concern to religious conservatives, it is astonishing that he would make a major speech about his views on religion and faith in America and not mention either. Yes, he clarified, regarding his Mormon faith, that 'no authorities of my church' would influence his presidential decisions. But this tells us who he is not. We need to know who he is. And here Romney left us with platitudes about religion in America with which few of any stripe would disagree.....But despite noting family breakdown as one of the challenges of our generation, he never mentioned the importance of the preservation of the traditional family, never mentioned abortion and never mentioned his personal concern about either.

And more: "Romney's observation that 'freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom' and that 'freedom and religion endure together or perish alone' was not something I would expect to hear from someone of deep faith. Religion endures any circumstance. Faith exists independent of freedom. It survives the darkest, dankest prison cell. But freedom allows it to flourish."