RAY SUAREZ:
People looking for historical parallels have reached back to John Kennedy in 1960, but we heard John F. Kennedy say a little bit earlier this hour that he believed that the separation between church and state was absolute. And Mitt Romney this morning was very careful not to go even close to there.
JON MEACHAM:
He did. This was also -- again, if one were not a person of faith, if one is not a person of faith, this was not a reassuring speech.
Governor Mitt Romney was quite strong on saying that secularism should not replace more traditional religious faith. That tends to overlook the grand and important role of moral tradition of secularism, Robert Ingersoll. There are many, many moral people who are not religious, in the same way there are many religious people who are immoral.
One cannot overlook the secular sources of morality and strong social conduct, righteous social conduct. My sense is that Romney did not want there to be any kind of sound bite that would play in Iowa to affirm to evangelical voters who may be skeptical of him that he was in any way separationist, as you say.
You know, again, if I'd been consulted, I would have suggested perhaps quoting Thomas Jefferson, who once said that, "It doesn't matter to me whether my neighbor believes in one god, 20 gods, or no god. It neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket."
And I think that is the kind of American tradition that we need to vigorously embrace and promulgate.
