The Hit-Job Mentality

Joel Campbell, a professor at Brigham Young University, which has a sizable journalism program, says, "In our culture, there's a lot of rigidity about not going against the norm, being a naysayer, and journalism by its nature involves questioning authority."

All too often, Campbell says, only Christian leaders are quoted in stories about Romney and religion. "What bothers me about the coverage is that journalists usually go to experts in other faiths," he says. Soukup, a Brigham Young graduate now on maternity leave, doesn't agree that journalism is anathema to most Mormons. But, she notes, "many LDS women don't tend to work in the workplace for the length of their career." And, she says, "journalists tend to be more liberal and Mormons tend to be more conservative."

She had to take an intern to her first Newsweek assignment -- a coffee-tasting arranged by Krispy Kreme doughnuts -- because Mormons don't use coffee or tea. (If the intern said the brew was "robust," Soukup scribbled that in her notebook.)

Soukup wrote a 2005 cover story on Mormonism that included an interview with Gordon Hinckley, the church's president. "That was kind of nerve-racking, sitting in the same room with one of the most important men spiritually," she says. Reaction from fellow church members was mostly positive, but there were complaints. "Some Mormons feel picked on in the press and are sensitive about what they read about the church," Soukup says.

Still, she doesn't feel hindered by her religion. "I felt it almost opened more doors for me because people were curious," she says.

Moving on to the campaign trail . . . I'd say there's a full-fledged conservative insurrection against Huckabee. Rich Lowry likens him to the chairman of the DNC:

"Like Dean, his nomination would represent an act of suicide by his party. Like Dean, Huckabee is an under-vetted former governor who is manifestly unprepared to be president of the United States. Like Dean, he is rising toward the top of polls in a crowded field based on his appeal to a particular niche of his party. As with Dean, his vulnerabilities in a general election are so screamingly obvious that it's hard to believe that primary voters, once they focus seriously on their choice, will nominate him . . .

"Huckabee has declared that he doesn't believe in evolution. Even if there are many people in America who agree with him, his position would play into the image of Republicans as the anti-science party. This would tend to push away independents and upper-income Republicans. In short, Huckabee would take a strength of the GOP and, through overplaying it, make it a weakness."

Huckabee accuses Bush of an "arrogant" foreign policy, prompting the Chicago Tribune to observe:

"Huckabee actually sounds a lot like the Year 2000 version of George W. Bush. Remember, it was Bush, then styling himself as a compassionate conservative, who said during the 2000 presidential campaign that America needed a 'humble' foreign policy."

At Real Clear Politics, Steven Stark says the surge is hurting Hillary:

"It's no longer the war, stupid -- it's the economy.