Update: Poor Mitt Romney’s just never Mormon enough for an election year. Though Trump retaliated immediately after Mitt Romney called him “a phony, a fraud” earlier this month, Trump took another shot at the former GOP presidential candidate at a rally in Salt Lake City, Utah on Friday, asking the crowd, “Are you sure he’s a Mormon? Are we sure?”
Responding to Trump rhetoric may be like feeding a Gremlin after midnight, but we at RD were lucky to have the following in the archives from the 2012 election season. — eds
Earlier this week, Florida evangelical Christian leader John Stemberger endorsed Rick Perry’s campaign for GOP presidential nominee. According to Stemberger, Perry was more “trustworthy” on social conservation issues like abortion rights.
On Romney, Stemberger said: “The issue not that he is a Mormon. The issue is that he wasn’t Mormon enough. If he had been consistent with traditional Mormon values his whole career, that would make me feel a lot more comfortable about where he’s coming from.”
Mitt Romney. Not Mormon enough. Yeah. Right.
Stemberger’s ludicrous assessment of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism inspired an eighteen-hour-stream of “Mitt Romney is so Mormon jokes” on Twitter at @askmormongirl. I’m reprinting the best here, with thanks to the comic geniuses of the Mormon Twitternacle, especially Matt Workman—@matthewworkman—and Jerilyn Pool—@auntmarvel.”
(Just a note: for some of these, you may have to be Mormon to understand.)
So, how Mormon is Mitt Romney?
Mitt is so Mormon he’s related to the other Mormon presidential candidate and half of his own campaign volunteers as well.
Mitt is so Mormon his campaign bus is a pioneer handcart.
Mitt is so Mormon he’d call 19-year-old boys to serve as US ambassadors.
Mitt is so Mormon his Israel policy will be centered on Jackson County, Missouri.
Mitt is so Mormon he’ll make the income tax a flat 10% and collect fast offerings to fund Medicaid.
Mitt is so Mormon he’ll ask the Senate to “sustain” his appointees by manifesting with an upraised hand.
Mitt is so Mormon he doesn’t do Pilates, he does golden Pilates.
Mitt is so Mormon that his campaign “oppo” team has done all the other candidates’ genealogy.
Mitt is so Mormon he’s organizing his precinct walkers in pairs to knock doors with a very special message.
Mitt is so Mormon he’d make the Book of Mormon required reading at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Mitt is so Mormon, that if he’s elected the “First Lady” will be known as the “First Wife.”
Mitt is so Mormon he’ll choke up and weep during his inaugural address. And then say, “I told myself I wasn’t going to cry.”
Mitt is so Mormon he’d commission a presidential motorcade built entirely of 10-passenger family vans.
Mitt is so Mormon, he will actually hang the Constitution up by a thread, just so he can save it.
Mitt Romney is so Mormon that he’s afraid to join the Tea Party because of Doctrine & Covenants 89.
Mitt is so Mormon he’ll start the State of the Union with the words: “I wasn’t going to get up, but the Spirit just carried me up here.”
Mitt is so Mormon his campaign biography begins, “I, Willard, having been born of goodly parents.”
Mitt is so Mormon, he will ask members of Congress to go home and pray about his economic plan.
Mitt is so Mormon he’d ask the Elders Quorum to move him into the White House.
Mitt Romney is so Mormon that his first act will be to make July 24 a national holiday.
Mitt is so Mormon, he asks donors to stack chairs after fundraising dinners.
Mitt is so Mormon he’ll award Ty Detmer, Steve Young, and Jimmer Fredette Congressional Medal of Honor.
Mitt is so Mormon he refers to expatriates as “apostates” and non-US citizens as “Gentiles.”
Mitt is so Mormon that his campaign slogan is “What do you know about Mitt Romney? Would you like to know more?”
Mitt is so Mormon he’ll reroute the Freedom Trail through Palmyra, New York, Nauvoo, Illinois, and Winter Quarters, Iowa.
Mitt is so Mormon he’ll rename the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms the Word of Wisdom squad.
Mitt is so Mormon he’d do an ad for the LDS Church: “I’m a husband, father, and leader of the free world. And I’m a Mormon.”
Mitt is so Mormon he isn’t as concerned about getting American youth jobs as he is about getting them married.
Mitt Romney is so Mormon he tried to convince CNN to let him bring a visual aid to the debate so he could turn it into an object lesson.
Mitt is so Mormon that he refers to Congress as “The Great and Spacious Building.”
Mitt is so Mormon that out of “concern for the one” he’ll invite Kim Jong-Il to join the fold.
Mitt is so Mormon he’ll end every address with “hope you all get home without any harm or accidents.”
Mitt is so Mormon he’ll assign a friend to every new member of Congress.
Mitt is so Mormon he’s already picked out a room in the White House for his year’s supply of wheat and beans, and he’ll require the White House Chef to rotate the food storage.
Mitt is so Mormon he’ll replace the Secret Service with the Danites.
Mitt is so Mormon his Secret Service codename will be Mahonri Moriancumr.
Mitt is so Mormon he thinks Harvard is the BYU of the east.
Mitt is so Mormon he thought the debt ceiling was something that could only happen in a temple.
Mitt is so Mormon, he doesn’t campaign: he “fellowships.”
Mitt is so Mormon that he’s installing two basketball hoops at the inaugural ball so there’s a place to hang decorations.
Mitt is so Mormon that he’ll change the name of “Cabinet Meeting” to “Correlation Meeting.”
Mitt is so Mormon that if he got elected all of the White House Pyrex 9×13 pans would have a piece of masking tape on them with his name written in Sharpie.
Mitt is so Mormon, he has four cats named 1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, 3 Nephi and 4 Nephi. (4 Nephi is the small one.)
Mitt is so Mormon that late last night he snuck out to put 5000 plastic forks in the lawn of Jon Huntsman. And after that, he heart attacked Rick Perry.
Mitt is so Mormon that he’s going to rename the 101st Airborne as “The Stripling Warriors.”
Mitt is so Mormon, he won’t deport illegal aliens, he’ll just disfellowship them.
Mitt is so Mormon, he’ll rename FEMA the Federal Relief Society.
Mitt is so Mormon he’ll start his acceptance speech with “I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.”
Mitt is so Mormon that if elected he’ll require every state to have an Official Casserole.
Mitt is so Mormon that the Marine Band will play “Praise to the Man” when he enters a room.
Mitt is so Mormon that he’ll appoint Lavell Edwards head of the Department of Defense.
Mitt is so Mormon he won’t allow advisers wearing non-white dress shirts to participate in cabinet meetings.
Mitt is so Mormon that he’ll rename the weekly presidential address “Politics and the Spoken Word.”
Mitt is so Mormon that his cabinet would consist entirely of unqualified volunteers.
Mitt is so Mormon he’d outsource the department of education to the Boy Scouts.
Mitt is so Mormon he’d convene a linger-longer after cabinet meetings.
Mitt is so Mormon he’d hang a copy of the Proclamation on the Family and a picture of the Washington, D.C. LDS temple in the White House.
Mitt is so Mormon he has volunteers combing through old GOP voter rolls for less actives he can reactivate.
Mitt is so Mormon he’d commission a Mod Bod undershirt to be engraved under the sleeveless dress of the Statue of Liberty.
Mitt is so Mormon he’d put everyone in his stake on the inauguration invite list. Just because.
Mitt is so Mormon he’d ask the Chief Justice to use a quad at his inauguration.
Mitt is so Mormon, he will add the phrases “every fiber of my being” and “beyond a shadow of a doubt” to the presidential oath of office.
Mitt Romney is so Mormon he’d plan a youth dance festival for his first 4th of July in office.
