I suppose, but the president can be a lot of things. He could be a Hawaiian or a Pennsylvanian or a Left-hander or black or white or Methodist or Catholic or Mormon or generically-"christian" or a fan of a particular sports team or whatever. But at least for me, when I think of Obama or Romney (or any politician), none of those things occur to me. I just think of Democratic or Liberal or Republican or Conservative. I don't think that most people associate the president with whatever religion or denominational beliefs he holds. Why would they? When I think about it, I think I know that Pelosi is Catholic and Reid is LDS and Biden is Catholic (I think) and Ryan is Catholic and Bush is Methodist and Obama is, er, whatever that Jeremiah Wright was (I don't think he attends now), but I know that that never occurs to me when I read about them. I just don't think people, in general, sympathize or identify with the president like that. I suppose that Mormons might, just as some black people do with Obama.k-s wrote:
It is plausible that four or eight years of sympathizing with and identifying with a Mormon president, in the course of ongoing political struggle, might attenuate some persons' antagonism toward Mormons in general.
I'm certain that some people have tried to use opposing candidates' non-mainstream religious beliefs to try to peal away some support and they'll bring it up as often as possible (true of Obama and Romney, I think), but at least from my experience with the regular people I work with and talk to on a daily basis, it doesn't come up and no one cares or even knows.