Anti-Mormonism in politics

James Fallows would like to remind everyone that anti-Mormonism is bigotry too:

To be against Mitt Romney (or Jon Huntsman or Harry Reid or Orrin Hatch) because of his religion is just plain bigotry. Exactly as it would have been to oppose Barack Obama because of his race or Joe Lieberman because of his faith or Hillary Clinton or Michele Bachmann because of their gender or Mario Rubio or Nikki Haley because of their ethnicity. I also think that if we were reading handicapping stories about any of those other situations, we'd be getting frequent reminders that what we were talking about was, in the end, simple prejudice. 

Judging a candidate on the grounds of their faith is certainly an interesting issue; you may remember Bill Keller's article on the matter a few months ago. "If a candidate for president said he believed that space aliens dwell among us," he begins, "would that affect your willingness to vote for him?" (Image: Reuters, via Politico)