Now He's Not Running

Mitt Romney defends the rights of non-believers:

"Upon reflection, I came to understand that while I could defend their absence from my address, I had missed an opportunity ... an opportunity to clearly assert that non-believers have just as great a stake as believers in defending religious liberty... If a society takes it upon itself to prescribe and proscribe certain streams of belief to prohibit certain less-favored strains of conscience it may be the non-believer who is among the first to be condemned. A coercive monopoly of belief threatens everyone, whether we are talking about those who search the philosophies of men or follow the words of God."

Of course, this isn't religious freedom as such. It is political freedom - to be free of religion if that is your choice. And it is freedom of speech and thought and association. Still I wonder if this tiny concession is part of a gambit to be McCain's heir.