March 26, 2007 issue - Most jokes that politicians tell don't make you laugh because they're too carefully calculated to be funny. Mitt Romney tells one that's carefully calculated and funny. "I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman," he recently told an audience of conservative Republicans. "And a woman, and a woman and a woman."
Polygamy humor is pretty risqué, at least for a Mormon. And that's just the point. The line works because it allows Romney to poke fun at his biggest political liability: many evangelical voters he'll need to win the nomination strongly reject the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and are wary of Romney himself. The church may have abandoned the practice of polygamy long ago, but to a lot of people, it's still the first thing that comes to mind when Mormonism is raised. By bringing the subject into the open, Romney breaks the...