Mitt Romney\u2019s planned speech today at the George Bush Presidential Library in Texas to confront suspicions about his Mormon faith is being viewed as the biggest moment of his presidential campaign.<\/p>\n
With surveys showing many Americans less likely to vote for a Mormon presidential candidate, the address has drawn comparisons to John F. Kennedy\u2019s call for religious tolerance when, as the Democratic presidential nominee in 1960, he sought to defuse hostility about his Roman Catholic faith before Southern Baptist ministers in Houston.<\/p>\n
Kennedy\u2019s task was in many ways easier, given that 42 million Americans were Roman Catholic then, compared with an estimated six million Mormons nationwide today, just 2 percent of the population.<\/p>\n
Mr. Romney and his advisers have made clear that he will not be explaining his faith, or doing \u201cMormon 101,\u201d\u009d as one top adviser put it, in his speech.<\/p>\n