Yet more evidence that Romney’s “Mormon speech” will largely skirt the Mormon issue, this time from the New Hampshire Times Leader:

Mitt Romney said today he will not try to defend his Mormonism or teach any lessons about it during his planned speech on “Faith in America” on Thursday. He also insisted the speech is not directly connected to questions raised about his religion by evangelicals in early voting states Iowa and South Carolina.
“I don’t know that even at this stage that my faith is a significant factor in my race,” the Republican presidential candidate told reporters following a talk on the economy at the Chateau Restaurant in downtown Manchester.
“I just don’t think in the final analysis it will be the deciding factor.
“But I do believe on a separate topic that faith in America is an important topic and there’s a lot of different views about faith in America,” he said. He said that the separation of church and state “is a topic of significance that a presidential candidate ought to take advantage of addressing and that’s why I’m doing it.”

God-o-Meter is scratching its head. Is Romney’s supposed Mormon speech really going to avoid Mormonism for the most part? Or is this all about expectations setting, akin to campaign aides in pre-debate spin rooms trying to convince the press that their candidate is about to get clobbered?

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