TOW #3 The Mormon in Mitt

               An article recently published in Time Magazine, titled “The Mormon in Mitt”, not only attempts to dispel certain rumors surrounding the Mormon religion, but also attempts to highlight the influence of the religion on presidential candidate Mitt Romney.  The author of the article, Jon Meacham, is the executive editor at Random House Publishing and is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.  Time Magazine is the world’s most widely circulated weekly news magazine.  Due to the fact that the republican challenger for the White House is a follower of the Church of Latter-day Saints, Mormonism has gained a considerable amount of media attention.  Yet despite this, many Americans feel as if they know little about the faith beyond the extreme examples of polygamy and communal living presented in the news.  In addition they know even less about how the faith might impact a President Romney.   The author uses rhetorical strategies such as anecdotes and comparison and contrast in order to communicate to his audience both the central tenets of the religion and their relation to Mitt Romney’s campaign.  This audience includes readers of Time and particularly those who are unsure about the beliefs of the Mormon faith.  I believe that Meacham was successful in describing the core beliefs of Mormonism, such as American exceptionalism and charity, yet he was unable to draw clear parallels between the characteristics of the faith and Romney’s behavior during his campaign.  For example, he describes how Mitt Romney’s adaptability (or “flip-flopping” abilities as some see them) might have come as a result of the fact that Mormons were constantly persecuted and uprooted when the religion first began.  Yet without word from Romney himself, many of these speculations seem unsubstantiated and unreliable.