Mitt's recent double speak presidential

On close inspection, it appears Romney was just employing a good bit of double speak — and what could be more presidential? — when he answered that LDS Second Coming doctrine corresponds with other Christian tradition.

Because it is LDS doctrine that not only will the Savior appear and build the new Jerusalem in Jackson County, Mo., he will also return and appear in old Jerusalem, as prophesied in the Bible.

"We believe in multiple appearances of the savior," a church official told me. "And of course Brother Romney is playing a little bit of a political game with his answer. He doesn't want to get into any kind of theological trouble with the evangelicals — they're always harping that 'you're not Christian,' — so he's being temperate. Christ will come to Jerusalem and the new Jerusalem. Beyond that the doctrine gets kind of involved. It isn't something you can say in three sentences."

So the evangelicals are right, the Mormons are right, and can't we all just get along?

Something else that irked a few fellow Mormons was Romney's recent personal editorial about polygamy during a "60 Minutes" appearance.

"I can't imagine anything more awful," said Romney, despite the fact his own ancestry involves plural wives.

Historian Audrey M. Godfrey said, "If I were one of his relatives, I would be upset with him."

Yeah, but at least his wife isn't.

You can't please all the people all the time. As Mitt Romney's incredibly entertaining campaign is revealing, sooner or later, survival becomes a simple case of deciding which votes are the most important.

Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.