A Pakistani-American Muslim businessman ran into Mitt Romney on the campaign trail and asked the following:
I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that “jihadism” is the principal foreign policy threat facing America today. He answered, “…based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration.”
Mormons = less than 2% of the American population.
Of course, my own denomination, which makes up less than .03% of the U.S. population, has produced two presidents (though Richard Nixon is the red-headed stepchild of Quakerism). And I like to think of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln as fellow skeptics.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Elaine // Nov 28, 2007 at 8:19 am
I guess I’m naive. I would have thought that a president would pick cabinet members on other criteria than what percentage of the population a person’s religion…or ethnicity or whatever…was in the whole population. Romney seems here to be saying that only members of the majority population…white, Christian, etc….are eligible for cabinet positions.
Which makes me wonder…is he planning, if he wins (not that likely, in my opinion), to have around half of his cabinet made up of women?
Just sayin’, you know.
2 xJane // Nov 28, 2007 at 8:24 am
wow.
3 John // Nov 28, 2007 at 11:46 am
Elaine, that’s an awesome observation. Hopefully America will never be in a position find out.
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