Religious bigotry in america

This whole situation with mitt romney has seriously pissed me off. I do not support the man for the presidency, but that is based on the fact of his politics, not his religion. Why does the religion of a candidate even matter? Im sick of hearing about it. He gave his speech on "Faith in America" and I think that he did a great job. It is just pathetic that he even needs to give a speech to legitimize himself in the first place. I mean honestly, the factors that matter the most in life are being passed up for petty differences. Isnt america the land of the free, including religious freedom? Again, I am not a Romney supporter and this is not supposed to be an argument whether god exists or whether we should have religion or not. The point is that there are people that are completely hating on someone just because of their religious affiliation. I just wish that the american public would be more mature than that. Bigotry is just as bad as racism or any other hate crime for that matter, yet it seems to be a predominant problem in america. Base your opinion of someone on their actions, not on some false accusations on something that has been spread by mudslingers.