Ryan Sager has his latest numbers which are extremely low for a candidate with his new, Hewitt-approved positions on all the Christianist public policy issues. So what gives? I was watching Fox News on the stairmaster yesterday and there was a bracingly candid conclusion from a South Carolinian about Romney's chances in the state: Mitt's a Mormon, and the leaders and followers of the Southern Baptist Convention are simply not going to vote for a man they regard as being part of a cult. They have been told by the Bush-Rove machine that religion matters in politics, and they still think it does. The idea of separating Mitt Romney's public policy positions from the theology of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young is unthinkable to that part of the GOP base. And without South Carolina and the South, it's tough to see how Romney can win. The ironies are obviously deep. The elite forces behind Romney are the elite forces behind Christianism. They have ridden the bigotry horse for a long time, and now it's trampling their favored candidate. One word: heh.