“I thought about it, and I never had any problem with Donny Osmond being Mormon.” [View all]

[kpete]

Some Southern voters said they had been won over by one candidate’s pitch: people respected Gingrich’s intellect, or were drawn by Santorum’s stand on abortion. In Pascagoula, Miss., retirees Elizabeth Davis and Mimm Bilbo went to a Romney rally undecided — and came out convinced.

“He was genuine. I think he could do a good job. He’s not in it for the money. He likes to turn things around,” Davis said.

Beforehand, she said, “I wished he wasn’t Mormon. I wished he was Christian.” Then, she said, she recalled Mormons doing good work in the community. “I thought about it, and I never had any problem with Donny Osmond being Mormon.”

But as the candidates’ attack ads blared from car radios, the strongest emotion for many Mississippi voters was no emotion at all.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-candidates-struggle-to-connect-with-conservative-southern-voters/2012/03/10/gIQAlJ5w5R_story_1.html