I'm going to advance a hypothesis. I dearly hope that I'm wrong.

If religion was not an issue in this election, the top four candidates at this point would be Obama, Clinton, Romney, and Giuliani. Few people would know who Huckabee is, and McCain would be trailing third among Republicans.

Here's how I came to this conclusion.

In October of 2006, a national poll found that 66 percent of Americans said they were "not ready" for a Mormon president. Another poll found that 52 percent of Protestants and 31 percent of Catholics held an "unfavorable" view of Mormons. Liberals were even more intolerant; 61 percent of them held "unfavorable" views.

Much of this resulted from ignorance and culturally accepted narrow-mindedness, and many came out expressing the view that such religious bigotry was unacceptable.

This had a positive effect, but a Gallup poll in March still found that 6 percent of voters would not vote for an otherwise "qualified candidate" if they were black, 12 percent said they would not vote for a woman, and 28 percent would not vote for a Mormon.

Another poll found that while 7 percent would not vote for a Jew, 24 percent said they would not vote for a Mormon.

Let's be clear, sometimes definitions can get a little fuzzy when they strike close to home, but if almost ten percent say they won't vote for a qualified candidate because he is a Jew; that is bigotry, and bigotry in its most raw and destructive form.

It is obvious that in a climate in which it is becoming more common for elections to be won or lost on less than two point margins, this relatively small percentage of bigots could sway an election.

Romney was leading in the polls in Iowa. Huckabee, a relatively unknown candidate, came into the state running ads emphasizing that he was "the Christian" candidate.

Who wasn't a Christian? I didn't notice that any candidate was claiming to be Muslim, Buddhist, or even an atheist. No, Huckabee's ads were in code. Every minister and fundamentalist in the state knew exactly what those ads meant, and many responded to it. If you question this, look at the precinct demographics and who voted for whom.

Romney was leading in the polls in New Hampshire, but then he came into the state as a loser. Americans don't like losers. The liberal eastern press supported McCain. Huckabee sliced another chunk of Romney's supporters away.

Romney won Wyoming, but Wyoming was suddenly no longer in the United States. In South Carolina, the conservatives couldn't decide whether it was better to vote their religion or their politics, giving McCain the win.

Florida came up. The press had anointed McCain the man, a winner, a hero. Giuliani, who expected to come into Florida as the press's favorite child, had now been eclipsed by McCain. He was now "the loser," who miscalculated. Even though Huckabee got less than half the votes of Romney, if Romney could have just picked up 37 percent of Huckabee's voters, he would have beaten McCain. Remember the surveys which found that about half of Protestants had an unfavorable view of Mormons, and Huckabee already had shown a talent for exploiting this bigotry.

On Super Tuesday, West Virginia was reported early. Romney won the popular vote, but didn't get enough to take the state by primary rule.

McCain and Huckabee's campaigns huddled behind closed doors and McCain threw his voters over to Huckabee, giving him the state.

Why? Because they both despise Romney. You can see it in their behavior, and while the candidates deny it, their handlers couldn't hold back their hatred. When asked why, they just looked confused and repeat the mantra that Romney ran attack ads.

This is like saying that the UNI basketball team doesn't like USU because USU plays basketball. On the Saturday before Iowa's primary, I was push-polled. By whom? Yes, by Huckabee supporters.

Romney couldn't take the heavy Baptist southern and border states. By the time most people got off work in California, Romney was already seen as a loser.

We could be voting for a governor or a mayor, but now we have a choice next November between a senator or a senator; a Washington insider or a Washington insider. Many conservatives are now thinking of a third party.

After so many years, when are we going to learn that bigotry is very expensive?