Romney Update

Continuing with today's updating trend, there's new information on the mysterious anti-Mitt Romney push polling phone calls of a couple of weeks ago. Several Iowa and New Hampshire residents were receiving anonymous survey calls asking questions about the more embarrassing aspects of Romney's Mormonism: his military deferment to do missionary work in Europe, the fact that the Mormon church officially rejected black people until 1978, etc. At the time, Romney lamented such a dirty, underhanded attack on his faith. But as Mark Hemingway (no relation?) at National Review Online argues, Romney most likely initiated the calls himself in order to play up the sympathy card and discourage the media from pressing the Mormon issue. Read Hemingway's excellent article here and Christopher Hitchens' (he of the newly waxed "sack, back, and crack") thoughtful response for Slate here.