Meanwhile, we can all rub the sting in our biceps for a moment and wait for the next injection. Because what just came out of the Romney camp - whether the Massachusetts guv and former 2002 Winter Games guru knows it or not - is one big inoculation for the public.
Campaign wonks, or any college kid earning a political science degree, soon learns the concept of "inoculation." A candidate goes on the offense early by naming the biggest problem he or she might face in the campaign. By laying out the worst on the table, long before an opponent or critic grabs the opportunity to do so, the candidate "inoculates" the public against the revelation looking much harsher in the future.
It's the political version of scratching the electorate's skin with a bit of cowpox virus to protect it from an infection to come. The next time the news surfaces, the public will feel just a tad more immune from the shock.
In Romney's case, his card-carrying Mormon church membership simply had to be served up - and for the hopeful candidate, the sooner the better. Conservative Christians have been grousing about the Romney-LDS connection for months now, seeing as they consider Mormons to be non-Christians and prisoners of a garden-variety cult. (But it's perfectly OK, as the 2004 record shows, for these evangelicals to muck about in the politics of a candidate they so anoint.)
Even under the stark neo-con glare of political evangelicals like James Dobson and Jerry Falwell, Romney has managed to deflect attention from his LDS ties. Last week, The Boston Globe helped change that. The paper reported on a series of e-mails from Romney campaign operative Don Stirling detailing attempts to gain support from LDS apostle Elder Jeffrey Holland, Deseret Book Company CEO Sheri Dew and various influential BYU alumni.
The LDS Church, mindful of its high-wire act in maintaining a tax-exempt status, immediately and vigorously denied involvement in Romney's campaign or any other candidate's efforts. As to e-mail exchanges between Romney's people and another party, church spokesman Michael Otterson said "[the church] has no responsibility for what others may write or what they may think."
So while citing inaccuracies in the news story and accusing Stirling of a bit too much zeal, Gardner took the fall. And while it's a good bet he may soon be banished to the campaign version of Siberia for the misstep - say, Mitt's man in Nome, Alaska - Gardner may have done Romney a huge favor.
The goof is round one in the inoculation process.
First, Romney's close relationship to his church is now on record, but the church itself has declared its neutrality on his campaign. Whether the public buys it is another story. But at least everyone is finally acknowledging Romney's elephant in the room.
The next inoculation and perhaps another must come before the middle of next year.
The pressure on Romney as a Mormon will keep building. A Monday editorial in The Globe snipped at the potential candidate for his cavalier attitude in soliciting aid from "BYU alums, people of my church, people of other churches." Romney's "lack of concern about the issue," according to the editorial, "raises doubts about his ability to keep church and state separate should he move to the White House."
As he sweeps up a bit around the campaign, Romney must be wishing that a better method or time for this first inoculation would have surfaced. But ambitious politicians can't always enjoy such luxuries. Better to work it now than later. Now everyone, push up a shirt sleeve.
hmullen@sltrib.com
