In case you missed it: Jodi Kantor’s front-page story in Sunday’s New York Times, headlined “Romney’s Faith, Silent but Deep,” was one of the most cringe-worthy puff pieces about a political candidate published in recent memory.

Read it and you’ll see I’m not exaggerating.

If I were Kantor’s editor, I would have immediately shot the piece back to her along with this question: How does Romney reconcile his supposedly deep faith with the well-documented evidence of his blatant lies regarding not only rival candidates but also his own past actions and statements on important issues?

Does he think lying is OK so long as it’s in the service of a greater good? Does he lie because he thinks American voters ultimately will overlook this glaring fault in their eagerness to oust Barack Obama?

Here’s an example of Kantor’s irony-free and unquestioning brand of analytical journalism:

…In church, Mr. Romney frequently spoke about obeying authority, the danger of rationalizing misbehavior and God’s fixed standards. “Most people, if they don’t want to do what God wants them to do, they move what God wants them to do about four feet over,” he once told his congregation, holding out his arms to indicate the distance, [Romney friend Clayton] Christensen remembered…

Kantor mentions that some Mormon supporters wonder how Romney can reconcile his moral notions with the attack ads presented in his name, but she doesn’t come close to addressing the disconnect between the candidate’s professed religiosity and his tendency to make deliberately false statements. Her story is a classic example of how far mainstream publications will go to prove how “objective” — i.e., non-adversarial — they are.