Mark Halperin's The Page is reporting that Governor Romney is set to deliver "the Mormon speech" this Thursday at the Bush Library in College Station, Texas.

This is relatively unexpected. Romney's Mormon faith, though ever-present, has not been as big an issue as could have been expected earlier in the year. Questions still linger as to whether the most recent Mormon "controversy" (the push polls) actually reflected any real  concerted anti-Romney strategy.

On the surface of it, Romney shouldn't have to give a Mormon speech any more than Obama should have to give a Muslim speech. Chatter about both candidates' religions seem to linger just under the radar, amongst die-hards who are probably lost to both. If anything the false rumors about Obama being a Muslim who attended an Indonesian madrassa seem to attract a lot more attention than the truth about Romney's religion, as this Google Trends chart shows:



Not included in this screenshot is the geographic distribution of these searches, with a huge concentration of "Romney mormon" traffic in Utah and a high concentration in other surrounding Western states and in Romney's home state of Massachusetts. On the face of it, these searches are coming from people who believe his religious faith is a plus.

Perhaps the Romney campaign knows something we don't? That Mormonism is a bigger deal on the ground than we are given to believe from press reports? Could Romney supporters believe that his recent slip in the polls in Iowa is attributable to a backlash against his Mormonism?

If so, that would seem to be a highly dubious reading of the Iowa electorate. But Romney's speech is likely to create its own new reality on this front.

UPDATE: In response to some comments: No, I'm not trafficking in the Obama Muslim rumors. Merely pointing out that these false rumors seem to have gotten more traction than the much-ballyhooed talk of Romney's religion. Obama shouldn't be forced to dignify these rumors with a substantive response. And neither should Romney with regards to anti-Mormon bigotry. The anti-Mormon bigots and the anti-Muslim rumormongers seem to exist on about the same level -- and neither candidate should let these fringe elements define their campaign.