Romney promises to put faith in his public life without serving a precise Church, but will GOP voters buy it?

Today was the big day for Mitt Romney, who delivered his much-anticipated speech on the role of his Mormon faith in his life and his leadership. I confess I am entirely unable to say whether Romney helped himself or hurt himself with this speech. It appears to be a strong attempt to dissuage voter fears about Mormonism, and a good adaptation of JFK's Catholicism speech to a Republcan audience; but it could also remind voters that Romney is a Mormon and place that issue at the center of discussion for a few days -- which would not be good for Mitt so close to Iowa.

His speech had two main arguments. First, the JFK one: Romney will not be beholden to one Church, because he believes in the separation of Church and state. I will serve "no one religion, no one group, no one cause," he said, promising that, "No authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions."

But this can obviously not work in a GOP primary. The voters are not looking for Romney to distance himself from faith, but distance himself from his faith. And Romney, sensible to that, adapted JFK's speech for the occasion: He is for the separation of Church and state, but is all for putting religion in public life. Check out his reason behind distancing himself from one particular faith: "No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes president he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths."

Romney emphasized that "Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freeddom." In other words, he is saying to the GOP voters: I agree with you that faith needs to be a part of a president's choices, a president's leadership. But that faith is not the precise dogmas of this or that Church -- it is a moral grounding we all share as Christians (he made sure to explain he believes in Christ the Son of God). And insofar as Romney has faith, insofar as he has that moral grounding, he will put religion and faith at the center of his presidency -- just as Republican voters might want.

In this way, Romney hopes he can convince voters to not pay attention to the particular doctrines of his Church but to the fact that he is religious and that his life embodies morality (he pointed out to his marriage with Ann, which brings forth an obvious contrast with the other GOP contenders). All in all, he wants to show that he would be a religious president -- but not a Mormon one. This passage is particularly emblematic of his argument:

The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square. We are a nation 'Under God' and in God, we do indeed trust... There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be seriously considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us. If so, they are at odds with the nation's founders, for they, when our nation faced its greatest peril, sought the blessings of the Creator.

Overall, his speech did not seem to lecture to primary voters -- something Romney had to be weary of in case voters get annoyed at his tone. But there were sentences that go part of the way towards admonishments, for example: "Religious tolerance would be a shallow principle indeed if it were reserved only for faiths with which we agree."

I think the speech has the potential of making some voters feel better about Mormonism, but I overall wonder: People who object to Romney's faith tend to think that Mormonism is not a Christian denomination. Would they then be comfortable with Romney's general religious background influencing him? I am doubtful, as I feel the core of Romney's argument was founded on his reassuring voters that he would put Christianity's moral groundings in public life.

But perhaps Romney will have succeeded in quieting underground attacks against him on the basis of this. Especially in South Carolina, where nasty campaigning is the norm, it will be interesting to see whether his opponents will still dare circulate rumors about Romney's Mormonism. The media might now be less willing to tolerate such attacks if it feels Romney did a good job of explaining it all away. And winning over the media could be one good consequence of this speech.