Buzzfeed: Are Democrat operatives gearing up for anti-Mormon campaign?

An Obama supporter has apparently posted a strategy for winning some southern states in the Bible belt and he's posted it to an Obama campaign website designed to create a nexus between the campaign itself and the voices on the ground. That strategy involves driving Christian voters away from Romney because of... wait for it... his Mormonism.

Via Buzzfeed:

When the Obama campaign released its much-anticipated Dashboard platform last May, it was touted as a potentially revolutionary organizing tool that would connect supporters, and merge online activism with real-life grassroots campaigning.

It can also be used as a platform to launch whispering campaigns, as one user proved this week.

On Monday, a "team member" named Laurence De Palma, who lists his location as East Nashville, presented volunteers with some talking points to convince Southern Christian voters they shouldn't vote for a Mormon. The message was available under "Resources" and tagged "persuasion."

"I'm thinking that even though we don't LIKE campaigns to get nasty, we in the south (TN) come to EXPECT it," De Palma began. "What we also know is that we have a very 'rigid' view of Christianity, and apparently, Mormonism isn't anywhere in our views. This could easily win TN/SC/AL/GA, etc."

Though the post has since been taken down, Romney's campaign spokesman - Andrea Saul - has responded:

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul condemned the posting in an emailed statement: "The news concerning the Obama Campaign's dashboard containing language based on sowing religious division is deeply disturbing. There is no place in politics for this, and it must be addressed and put to an end."

There are several reasons why the liberal media wanted Mitt Romney to be the Republican nominee. The establishment wanted him (that usually bodes well for the Democrats); Romney is a moderate; Romneycare would help to neutralize the Obamacare debate; and Romney doesn't inspire the right-wing base, which leads to another reason.

Romney's religion. I've long believed that Mitt's Mormonism would be an issue for the left to exploit; we may just be getting closer to that reality. That's not to say that it hasn't been brought up; it has been.

Last month, James Carville said he thought Romney's religion was his biggest weakness. Last April, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said David Axelrod would attack Mormonism; MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell got quite aggressive against the Mormon religion while NBC's David Gregory did so in a much more subtle / pseudo-objective kinda way.

Also, let's not forget about when Donna Brazile inadvertently let it slip that Romney was the candidate the Democrats wanted to face. Michael A. Walsh, in a New York Post article, wrote about the incident at the time:

Lost in the weekend’s back-to-back debates in New Hampshire was this illuminating remark by Democratic strategist Donna Brazile after Saturday night’s soporific contest in Manchester: “Mitt Romney won tonight because no one touched him. And for Democrats, you know what? It was good news for us . . . because we believe that the weakest candidate is the candidate that the Republicans are not attacking. And that’s Mitt Romney.”

The remark drew guffaws from some of the other assembled party faithful and media commentators, but Brazile spoke the truth. Democrats do believe that Romney is eminently beatable, the perfect foil for President Obama, in fact.

Again, there are several reasons why the Democrats wanted to face Romney. The perceived ability to exploit his religion and drive evangelical voters away is one of them.

Zip over at Weasel Zippers asks:

Do they really want to make this about religion considering Obama’s Jeremiah Wright past?

Considering that Romney has avoided hitting back at Obama with Fast and Furious after several obvious opportunities to do so. Obama campaign / Super PACs accused Romney of being too 'secretive', suggested he was a 'felon', and implied he murdered a woman. David Axelrod even compared him to Richard Nixon.

Fast and Furious was a gun-walking operation run in the shadows; the Justice Department stonewalled Congress for over a year (and continues to do so) - that's secretive. Fast and Furious was more than just a little felonious - putting guns in the hands of bad guys does qualify. As for murder, Fast and Furious is responsible for the murder of at least one U.S. Border Agent - Brian Terry - and hundreds of Mexican nationals. As for the Nixon comparison, Obama is the one who asserted executive privilege to prevent documents about Fast and Furious from being presented to Congress.

With all due respect to Zip, if Romney won't hit back at these blatantly projectionist attacks by the Obama administration with Fast and Furious, why would he respond to attacks on Mormonism by bringing up Jeremiah Wright?

Ah, there's another reason the Democrats wanted to face Romney.