[Gerald]

He didn't win, but Mitt Romney wasn't far off. So what happened to the predictions that a Mormon candidate could never have a shot at the US presidency?

The long lead-up to the US election was peppered with commentaries on Mormonism - the little-understood religion of Mitt Romney, front-runner for the Republican ticket.

The naysayers said a Mormon could never win the White House, and they appeared to be backed up by surveys of public opinion.

In June, a study by Gallup suggested that almost 20% of Americans would not vote for a well-qualified candidate if he was Mormon - a figure virtually unchanged from 44 years ago, when Mitt's father, George Romney, ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination.

Another study by Pew found a third of Mormons themselves said they did not feel the country was ready to elect a Mormon president, such is the discrimination against them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20327593


Note: 16 November 2012 Last updated at 01:12 GMT