Candidates Court Catholics (Tina Fey was right...)

The Wall Street Journal

Candidates Court Catholics
Bloc's Support May Be Key in Pennsylvania; 'Nun Theory' at Work?
By AMY CHOZICK
March 17, 2008; Page A8

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Exit polls show that Sen. Clinton captured 63% of the Catholic vote in Ohio and 65% in Texas. Even in states in which she has lost to Sen. Obama by double digits the New York senator has in some cases won among Catholics. The Obama campaign is trying to show that its message resonates with Catholic voters. In the coming weeks in Pennsylvania, the campaign says it will send mailings to religious voters and launch a Catholic-specific phone-banking system. The campaign recruited Vicki Kennedy, the wife of Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy -- an Obama supporter and perhaps the country's best-known Catholic Democrat -- to hold roundtable discussions with Catholic women before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary.

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Religion has taken a higher profile in the heated race for the Democratic presidential nomination, as the Obama campaign deals with the fallout from controversial comments made by outgoing spiritual adviser Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. About one in four Americans is Catholic and while the anti-abortion and anti-gay-marriage contingent has been vocal, a new wave of progressive Catholics focused on increasing minimum wage, ending the war in Iraq and implementing universal health care has emerged as a key Democratic bloc this election year. In a recent survey of 19 states that have held presidential primaries this year, 63% of Catholics identified themselves as Democrats compared with 37% for Republicans, a sharp increase from 2005 when 42% of Catholics identified themselves as Democrats, based on polls conducted by Edison/Mitofsky.

Catholic voters gravitate to Sen. Clinton for various reasons, including favorable memories of her husband's administration and her long-term emphasis on universal health care. Some of her positive showing among Catholics is a result of overlapping constituencies like white working-class voters and Hispanics. In California, where Hispanics made up roughly one-third of all primary voters, 70% of all churchgoing Catholics voted for Sen. Clinton, compared with 26% for Sen. Obama. Some Catholic Democrats say that Sen. Clinton's emphasis on specific solutions is similar to Catholic social teaching, which urges its followers to use the doctrine as a way of bring about positive social change particularly when it comes to alleviating poverty. Meanwhile, some Catholic voters and politicians say Sen. Obama, who talks often about finding religion as an adult at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, now the center of the Rev. Wright storm, has a broader stump speech that is closer to a Baptist or evangelical sermon.

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Another argument is the "nun theory," which holds that Catholics are more accustomed to strong-minded female leadership because of the prominent role of nuns. "I think Catholic Democrats...are accustomed to having female authority figures in the form of the sisters in our schools and Sen. Clinton, I think, benefits from that," says Christopher McNally, the Pennsylvania chair for the Catholic Democrats and an active Obama supporter. The Clinton campaign has a simpler explanation. "It's really about common ground in two places: values and the economy," says Burns Strider, an evangelical Christian and the director of faith-based operations for the Clinton campaign.

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URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120571829306940631.html (subscription)

called the Catholics a whore religion! McBush is dead in the water with the Catholics because he wouldn't denounce Hagee's endorsement! I don't know that it benefits either Dem candidate more than another, but it sure puts the Pubs in a ditch!

But the younger weren't taught by nuns. There are about zero nuns under the age of 60 right now.

so... I don't know about the logic there in the highlighted bit.

I actually laughed when I read that quote. The idea that Catholics are voting for Hillary because she reminds them of Sister Mary Catherine is ludicrous.