This article (registration may be required) is a good presentation of the difficulties that Mormons have in national politics — especially given the emphasis on ‘faith’ that exists in the Republican party. I don't think the author's analysis of Romney's difficulties is as insightful since I doubt that his Mormonism is the issue that's hurting him right now.

Last week Mitt Romney gave his Kennedy speech where he addressed the relevance of his Mormon faith to his candidacy (transcript here). I thought about writing an extended review, but I guess I am too lazy for that so it will have to be bullet points instead.

• Romney said, “A person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith.”
  
  I assume he is saying that individual voters should not vote against candidates because of their religion since the Constitution already prohibits religious tests at the system level. I think a person's religion says something about the way that person thinks. I certainly wouldn't vote for a scientologist for example.
• “Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. ... Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.”
  
  Romney lost the militant atheist vote here ;)
• “Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin.”
  
  This confused me because this is the very definition of secularism when he earlier said he was against secularism.
• Romney needs the evangelical Christian vote to win the Republican nomination. He wants to be able to play to the faith crowd without bringing any specifics of his own faith into this. This is why I don't understand why he said “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind”. If he feels this is an appropriate question for a candidate to answer, couldn't this lead to other questions that won't play so well with his target audience.
• And finally, if you've read the speech, you'll probably appreciate this spoof.