Finally, and briefly, I’ll give you my quick take on the politics of the Romney speech: They’re bad.

At this point, what more is there to say about it? Pretty much everyone got it before the speech was given, and nothing in the speech changed the equation.

If Romney’s Mormonism was a barrier to a significant number of voters in Iowa, there was nothing in the speech that would put their minds at ease. If anything, emphasizing his refusal to speak about Mormon doctrine can only make Evangelicals more suspicious. All the speech did was make sure that “Mitt Romney is a Mormon” is the storyline this week and probably next. How does that help, other than possibly diverting some media attention away from Mike Huckabee? And the worst of it is, for Romney, that I don’t think it has diverted much attention from Huckabee, especially since the narrative of the speech is that it’s been given in response to Huckabee’s rise.

And, personally, I don’t believe the “it’s all about anti-Mormon bigotry” argument anyway. The flip flopping’s what killed him.