Hugh Hewitt has been touting Bob Jones III's recent endorsement of Mitt Romney as a significant event demonstrating he's overcome questions about his Mormon faith and broken through with evangelicals, particularly in South Carolina (see here and here).

But Tom Baxter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Southern Political Report has the details on a new Insider Advantage poll suggesting Romney's faith remains an obstacle for SC voters and that the Jones endorsement might have had the opposite effect:

Forty-five percent of likely South Carolina Republican primary voters say they are less likely to vote for Mitt Romney next January because he is a Mormon, according to the latest InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion poll.

The poll, conducted Thursday night, made it clear that by calling attention to the former Massachusetts' governor's religion, the endorsement of Bob Jones III, chancellor of the fundamentalist Christian university in Greenville which bears his name, could have hurt Romney more than it helped him.

In the poll of 486 likely Republican primary voters, 27 percent of voters said the Jones endorsement made it more likely they would vote for Romney, while 32 percent said it made it less likely.

I don't tend to place a lot of stock in small sample polls like this, nor do I tend to think endorsements are nearly as significant as they're made out to be - as Hugh is doing with Jones. But one thing seems fairly certain: we're less than 100 days out from the vote in South Carolina - and less than that in Iowa and New Hampshire - and the questions surrounding Romney's religion are still out there swirling.

Bob Novak reported back on October 4 that the Romney campaign has a speech more or less in the can addressing the issue of his religion, but has been holding off on Romney giving it. Novak declared, "It is certain that sooner or later, Romney will address the nation," adding that Romney "will have but one shot to get it right, with no chance for a mulligan."

I tend to agree with Novak that, fair or not, at some point over the next 60 days Romney will have to give a speech addressing the subject of faith to try and move beyond the issue heading into the primaries.