Mitt Romney says his speech today on faith and politics will not be exactly like John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 address.
Logistically, it definitely will not be.
He will be introduced at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas, by the former president. He will be speaking to a handpicked audience of supporters and others, not a ballroom full of skeptical Protestant ministers as Kennedy did. And unlike Kennedy, Romney will not be taking questions.
CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News all plan live coverage of the speech, scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. EST.
Romney's campaign released a statement detailing the preparations he is making, accompanied by photographs showing Romney putting the final touches on the speech.
"This week, Governor Romney has been working with aides, family, and friends to make final edits to the 'Faith in America' speech," says the statement.
Romney's aides said the audience will include James Bopp Jr., a prominent antiabortion activist who is an adviser to Romney, and Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Land has been among those who have urged Romney to give a speech addressing suspicions about Mormonism head-on.
Land, in a blog posting yesterday, said "such a speech by Governor Romney is even more important for our nation than it is for Governor Romney. Why? Because our nation needs to be reminded in such a high profile speech that we are a country that believes so deeply in religious freedom that we enshrined the prohibition for any religious test for office in our Constitution."
The venue puts Romney on familiar turf. He came to the Bush library in April to deliver a speech on strengthening the military, increasing energy independence, and combating radical Islam.
Ann Romney said yesterday the speech will focus on religious liberty. In an interview on MSNBC, she echoed Kennedy's speech in which he said he was not a Catholic running for president, but an American running for president.
"He is not just the Mormon candidate," Romney said of her husband. "He will be an American running for president."
