Frankly, I think Mitt can survive the Mormon issue as long as our media continues its tradition of not actually scrutinizing religious beliefs. Meaningless identification with a religion (church attendance optional), sprinkled with a few religious phrases and a nod to some conservative social causes makes you "religious" in our public discourse and otherwise the details are happily ignored. While there are big differences of believe and tradition within mainstream Christianity, cosmetically there are enough surface commonalities that people can easily ignore these differences. Mormonism is different enough and has some beliefs and traditions which will likely seem goofy to nonbelievers. But there's no reason for the media to delve deeply into what it means to be a Mormon, as they never delve deeply into what it means to be a Methodist or an Episcopalian, and as long as they don't Mitt'll be mostly fine.
His complete lack of consistency is another issue.
