Salesbot hails from the planet of good hair

The current Newsweek cover explores the religious life of Republican presidential candidate Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney, my favorite Bain LBO slickster named after a baseball glove. In how Romney sells his non-Christian presidency lie many lessons for the political futures of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Buddhists in America.

Romney’s father was CEO of American Motors and governor of Michigan, and his family is strictly Mormon. But the story reports they were highly secular with the surrounding community, going so far as to drop an Italian exchange student they were hosting at a Catholic church every Sunday.

Romney currently leads Republicans in Iowa polls despite the discomfort of evangelical Christians. He avoids talking to the press about his religion, despite being deeply involved in the Mormon church at every level, because some of the religion’s practices and founding stories are seen as odd.

But every religion is fundamentally tribal. Every religion has practices and mythologies which sound bizarre in the age of science. And the electorate is not marrying the president. A leader and manager’s religious beliefs are just irrelevant as along as the person separates them from the job. To engage in a little positive stereotyping, observant Mormons I’ve known remind me a lot of observant Sikhs I’ve known in terms of an immense work ethic, value for family, earnestness and groundedness.

If I were Romney, I’d be playing up the Mormon angle at every opportunity. Flaunt it. Make it your own. And when someone comes at you with polygamy, aliens and secret underpants, fire back with talking snake, burning bush and cosmic zombie.

Dubya’s speechwriters regularly insert evangelical references like ‘wonder-working power‘ in presidential communiqués. If Romney takes my advice, maybe eventually a president Amitabh can throw down a little ‘Lakshman Rekha‘ — and have it be understood