The 29% ceiling on Romney’s support was erected by him, not Southern Evangelicals

Bachmanns and Perrys come and Bachmanns and Perrys go, but Mitt never gets the leftovers, no matter how much he raises Cain. And don’t be fooled by the recent semantic flap over “Christians” and “cults”. Even Reverend Jeffress admitted that he would vote for Mormon Romney over Christian President Barack Obama.

Religion is the least of Mitt’s problems with all Republican voters

No, the former Governor of the Bay State’s problem with Evangelicals, North and South and non-Evangelicals across the Fruited Plain is a matter of trust on conservative issues of mostly an economic variety.

For the record, this Southern Baptist Carolina Gamecock roosted atop Stone Mountain of Georgia supported Mitt Romney as far back as 2007, before and after Fred Thompson’s cameo appearance and think he would be a great President that all Americans would be proud of.

Here’s why:

• Character? Check. The husband of one wife and father’s family right out of Norman Rockwell’s portfolio could probably rival the Father of our Country in having never told a lie nor chopped down a cherry tree.
• Competence? Check. Profits are the “Bain” of his business existence.
• National Security hawk? Check. He kept Salt Lake City Olympians safe after 911.
• Social Issue conversion believable? Check. He’s a Mormon. Yes, he pandered for Massachusetts soccer mom votes, but we consider his post-fetal tissue embryos as trash pro-life epiphany to be genuine.
• Debating whiz? Its self evident.

Unfortunately, absent bona fide conservative policies, none of the above will cure what ails America. Laws must be changed in specific ways to lower the debt, balance the budget and but quickly to save the USA from a future as Greece being bitch-slapped by China.

Policy matters most

I have no doubt that his election and many of his policies will foster a recovery of some magnitude from Great Depression II, anemic QE-fueled stock market-driven GDP numbers notwithstanding; and a lowering of the unemployment rate.

Of “some” magnitude. But America can no longer abide milquetoast photo-op bi-partisan government when Republicans get the messes inevitably left over when Americans take leave of their senses and empower liberal Democrat super-majorities.

Which is why we cringed during the recent Bloomberg-Dartmouth Debate as Mitt waxed syrupy about reaching across the aisle to compromise with Democrats.

Compromise didn’t keep Salt Lake safe from terrorists, doesn’t cure cancers of the body and didn’t work a RomneyCare miracle in Massachusetts no matter how slickly one explains away what is and what could have been; and splitting the differences with Reids and Pelosis won’t cure what Obama, Reid and Pelosiwrought.

Save anymore RomneyCare postmortems for your post-Presidency memoirs. Massachusetts arguably had to do damage control due to federal government distortion of the health care and health insurance markets. Mitt will have no such excuse as President of the United States.

In Washington, D.C. he won’t have to compromise with Democrats if nature takes its natural course next November. He will have, dare I say, right-minded conservative Republicans to deal with in Congress, if not like-minded. And if the few Democrats over 39 that remain in the Senate stand in the way, then we don’t pass bills just for the sake of passing a bill and pretending we solved a problem for David Gregory’s sake at NBC. And besides, much can be repealed via budget reconciliation and by a GOP Senate employing the Reid Rule to waive pesky 60-vote requirements not in the Constitution.

The salad days, when Establishment Republicans did little harm and looked so much better than Clintons and Obamas by comparison, ended with the bursting of the housing bubble in 2008 and after the rising of health insurance premiums in Massachusetts and the United States after the passage of RomneyCare andObamaCare, respectively.

Read our lips and make conservative promises

We trust your word sir, coupled with the lesson of the re-election dog that didn’t bark for George H.W. Bush. Therefore, you shall promise to repeal ObamaCarewhether or not it is immediately replaced by 59-point plans you can’t recite or even lay out bullet points for in a website summary (we looked).

You will allow interstate sales of health insurance policies, forthwith. Yes, we appreciate your discovery of the John Adam’s Massachusetts Constitution and the Tenth Amendment right of states to follow bad advice from Samuel Adams within their borders. But the Articles of Confederation were chucked for ferry boat-like monopolies akin to today’s 50 state health insurance monopolies. The interstate commerce clause has surely been abused by Congress and aided and abetted by the Supreme Court, but that clause was inserted by the Framers specifically to foster interstate commerce.

So promise to foster it.

As we stated earlier, those that revere the name of Christ don’t care about the doctrinal tenants of Mormonism. But neither do we want an unconstitutional National Church of Man-Made Global Warming respected by laws and regulations that deny We the People the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Human happiness over imagined threats to the polar bear and snail darters.

We all favor reasonable pollution controls and energy efficiency, but by all means we must have energy to fuel modern life and that includes Americans driving huge SUVs and Monster trucks if we please, at reasonable prices the market produces.

Recycling and other environmental fetishes more about moral preening over wine and cheese are so over outside the Beltway. You know, where the votes are and jobs just now ain’t?

You will promise to eschew any policy based on man-made global warming or you will not be nominated by the Grand Old Party. You are going to have a hard time buying it anyway given your progressive past.

And don’t worry, if it turns out that the breath of humans turns out to be harmful to the Earth, there are plenty of tsunami-free zones in Utah and other places inland where we can wait until the second Coming takes our breath away. If you are truly an acolyte of Rev. Al Gore’s gospel, prove it and buy some coastal front property in Arizona to leave to your great-grand children before you tell Americans and the Third World to give up dreams of prosperity.

I lean to Cain, but remain persuadable.

Mike DeVine

Editor - Hillbilly Politics

Co-Founder and Editor - Political Daily

Atlanta Law & Politics columnist –  Examiner.com

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

More DeVine Gamecock rooster crowings at Modern Conservative, Unified Patriots,  and Conservative Outlooks. All Charlotte Observer and Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-eds archived at Townhall.com.