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What religious voter demographics re-elected Obama? (& is it relevant if Mitt's Mormonism wasn't?]
Colofornian (Vanity) | Nov. 9, 2012 | Colofornian

Posted on 11/09/2012 9:10:29 PM PST by Colofornian

If the religious makeup of the GoP candidate didn't matter to many FREEPERs, why is the religious make-up of certain voter demographics of sudden interest to many of these same posters?

In three post-election days, I've seen five FR threads on what Evangelicals did -- or didn't do -- at the polls...and yet NONE on what Catholics did.

Why the lopsided attention?

Given that Catholics supported Obama by a 50-48 percent margin, wouldn't that be at least as relevant -- if not more? [Note: Going into the election, Pew Forum found that Latino Catholics were supporting Obama 73-19%, so even though White Catholics supported Romney 59-40%, since Latinos comprise more than one-third of Catholics, it flipped that overall demographic vote]

For those concerned about Evangelicals who may have voted Third Party, stop worrying: Evangelicals supported Mitt Romney by a higher pct (79-20%) than even Mormons did (78-21%) per How the Faithful Voted: 2012 Preliminary-Exit Poll Analysis

For those who were concerned about Evangelicals "staying home," some cursory evidence exists that perhaps some significant numbers did in the Deep South...But overall, it did not effect any electoral numbers as it didn't bleed over across the Florida state border. Across the board, Evangelicals turned out as well if not better than 2008 and 2004.

By contrast and comparison, if the Pew Forum exit polls are right, over 1 million less white Catholics voted in the 2012 election vs. 2008...and almost four million non-Evangelical white Protestants were AWOL as well. Given the aging portions of these demographics, it's hard to say how many of these died since 2008...without being "replaced" by a younger voter of the same religious identity.

Per Pew Forum, only 12% of the voting pool was religiously unaffiliated...and these voted Obama 70-26%.

At over 120 million votes counted for this POTUS election -- the count will probably wind up with 123-124 million --that amounts to over 9 million voters...

Yet, Obama received over 61 million -- and may garner up to 63 million by the time all the counting's done.

So who were the religious voters that gave Obama well past 50 million votes????

Below's figures are meant to be ballpark vs. fine-tuned specificities...They are based solely upon extrapolations from the Pew Forum exit polls found at the link previous in this article.

Approximate votes going Obama's way from religious voters:

* Latino Catholics (5% of voting pool): Over 4.5 million votes
* White Catholics (18% of voting pool): By the time's all counted, perhaps 10 million votes
* Other Catholic (2% of voting pool): Over 1 million votes
TOTAL CATHOLIC CONTRIBUTION: Over 15.5 million votes

* Jewish (2% of voting pool) - Over 1.5 million votes

* Other non-Christian faiths (7% of voting pool): Over 5.5 million votes
* Lds (2% of voting pool): Almost half a million votes

* Black Protestant (9% of voting pool) - By time it's all been counted, over 11 million voters
* White Mainline Protestant (14% of voting pool) - About 8 million voters by time it's all been counted
* White Evangelicals (24% of voting pool, rounded off) - About 6 million voters once they've all been counted
* Latino Evangelicals (Little over 1% of voting pool) - Less than a million voters
* Other minority Christian or Protestant (4% of voting pool) (Guessing 2.5 million voters)
TOTAL PROTESTANT CONTRIBUTION: About 28.5 million votes

Now, Protestants are over 50% of the voting pool; Catholics are 25% of voting pool...so we would expect for every Catholic vote, there would be two Protestant votes...

Had Protestants voted for Obama the same rate as Catholics, the total above would be over 31 million -- not 28.5 million...

My estimate is that Black Protestants -- 9 percent of the overall voting pool -- accounted for about 43 percent of ALL Protestant votes; and Latino and black Catholics -- accounting for 7 percent of the overall voting pool -- accounted for over 30 percent of ALL Catholic votes.


TOPICS: Catholic; Charismatic Christian; Current Events; Evangelical Christian; Judaism; Mainline Protestant; Orthodox Christian; Other Christian; Other non-Christian; Religion & Politics; Skeptics/Seekers
KEYWORDS: evangelical; lds; mormon; potus; vanity
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To: mosesdapoet

How could the architect of Romneycare argue against his own creation? This campaign was doomed from the start, for this very reason.


21 posted on 11/10/2012 4:36:44 AM PST by JCBreckenridge (They may take our lives... but they'll never take our FREEDOM!)
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To: Just mythoughts
Fact is that the majority of Catholics in the United States are liberal.

Only if you include those who will tell a pollster they're "Catholic", but can't be bothered to actually attend a Catholic church on any regular basis. Church-going Catholics voted for Romney 60-40.

22 posted on 11/10/2012 5:42:59 AM PST by Campion ("Social justice" begins in the womb)
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To: Colofornian

It’s interesting to note that neither presidential ticket featured a white protestant. Mitt is, of course, Mormon and Ryan is catholic as is Joe Biden.

However, it’s disingenuous to think Romney’s faith didn’t play a role. Just think back to the daily diatribe of anti-Mormon articles and vanities posted here every day during the primaries.


23 posted on 11/10/2012 6:28:01 AM PST by OldRanchHand
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To: massmike
Naturally, from a voting point of view, this fact should be read in light of one determining factor: religious practice. Catholics and Protestants who go to church every week chose Romney over Obama with a difference of 20%, whereas the Democratic candidate was 25% ahead in terms of the votes gained from individuals who practiced their faith less regularly.

I saw that 20% stat, too...

CNN exit polls said that weekly church-attenders went Romney 59-39%.

Still, about 40% of the most avid church attenders went Obama! (That says something)

24 posted on 11/10/2012 6:54:09 AM PST by Colofornian (Some say "we're not voting 4 'pastor-in-chief'" --as if "gods-in-embryo" were divine only on Sundays)
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To: Baynative
I heard today that Obama took 64% of the Jewish vote. I guess it’s time for me to quit being concerned about the fate of Israel since they seem ok with their choice for our ally relationship.

(Was worse than that: 69-30%)

25 posted on 11/10/2012 7:01:40 AM PST by Colofornian (Some say "we're not voting 4 'pastor-in-chief'" --as if "gods-in-embryo" were divine only on Sundays)
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To: stillonaroll
Blame the atheists!! 70%-26% = 44% x 12% of the electorate = 5.3% of the popular vote. More than enough to swing the election to Zero.

Exactly :) ...(and don't forget the agnostics in that group!)

26 posted on 11/10/2012 7:02:50 AM PST by Colofornian (Some say "we're not voting 4 'pastor-in-chief'" --as if "gods-in-embryo" were divine only on Sundays)
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To: Colofornian

Suppose Jews had voted 69-30% for Romney. Would he have won?

At least half of Jews don’t consider themselves ‘religious’ by any definition (something like 40% claim to be atheists).

Jew-bashing won’t help get a single conservative elected.


27 posted on 11/10/2012 7:11:27 AM PST by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: OldRanchHand
However, it’s disingenuous to think Romney’s faith didn’t play a role. Just think back to the daily diatribe of anti-Mormon articles and vanities posted here every day during the primaries.

#1: Basically 99.9% of it occurred prior to Romney getting the official nomination...
#2: A similar % (high 90s) occurred prior to Santorum dropping out -- between the years of 2007-->early April 2012...Therefore when the GoP-e gets behind a candidate with that much flak, it goes on the shoulders of the GoP-e, not the truth-tellers.
#3: Just about ALL of what you're referencing came to a halt in mid-August when the site owner tossed his hat in against Obama.

#4: There also was quite a bit about Obama's Muslim ties + Rev. Wright ...so all that was counterbalanced

Here's a minor sampling of that...
* Meet Obama’s Wahhabist Relatives [With plenty of picture links] [Posted Oct. 17, 2012 by Colofornian]
*Obama's excuse for embassy attack, the movie, is failure as his Muslim policy [Posted Sept. 21, 2012 by Marketfly1]
* Meet Obama’s Million Dollar Muslim Donor [Posted Oct. 14, 2012 by expat1000]
* Obama family busted in Shariah scheme - Foundation funding training for Saudi-style government [Posted Oct. 11, 2012 by Perseverando]
* Obama’s Islamic Supremacist Human Rights Rep: Meet Salam al-Marayati, 9/11 Truther & Hamas-supporter [Posted Oct. 9, 2012 by 2ndDivisionVet]
* New Ad Implies Obama Is Cozy With Muslim Brotherhood [Posted Sept. 21, 2012 by Perdogg]
* New Ad Implies Obama Is Cozy With Muslim Brotherhood [Posted Sept. 20, 2012 by Nachum]
* White House Media Ignores Obama’s Muslim Outreach Meltdown [Posted Sept. 18, 2012 by lbryce]
* For Barack Obama, Muslims can do no wrong [Posted Sept. 14, 2012 by neverdem]
* PIPES: Obama: ‘My Muslim faith’; President uses pious expressions with Muslims [Posted Sept. 11, 2012 by 2ndDivisionVet]
* Pro-Muslim Apologetic Policies of Obama - Refusal to Defend Embassy Leads to Death of US Ambassador [Posted Sept. 12, 2012 by Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]
* Obama: ‘I Have Never Been A Muslim’ [Posted Sept. 9, 2012 by Steelfish]
* The Muslim Side of Obama [Posted June 3, 2009 by Former Farmer]
* Muammar Qadafi Acknowledges that Barack Hussein Obama is Muslim [Posted Oct. 6, 2008 by Hecht]
* Muslim Obama: ‘WILL STAND WITH MUSLIMS SHOULD POLITICAL WINDS SHIFT IN UGLY DIRECTION’ [Posted March 29, 2008 by OnRightOnLeftCoast]
* Obama's pro-Muslim words [Posted Nov. 23, 2009 by freedomyes]
* Obama's Five Pillars of ............ [Posted April 14, 2009 by TenthAmendmentChampion]
* David Limbaugh: Is Obama a Christian? [Posted Aug. 27, 2010 by markomalley]
* Connect all the dots on Barack Hussein Obama [Posted Oct. 10, 2008 by savvyguy]
* Barack Obama's Muslim Childhood [Posted April 29, 2008 by PaleoConservative]
* NY Times Pulls Kristof's Piece with Obama's Muslim Call to Prayer [Posted Sept. 8, 2008 by markedmannerf]
* Mideast leader: Obama a Muslim who studied in Islamic schools [Posted Oct. 17, 2008 by Texascajun]
* My Muslim President Obama (02.25.09) [Posted Feb. 25, 2012 by libstripper]

28 posted on 11/10/2012 7:14:32 AM PST by Colofornian (Some say "we're not voting 4 'pastor-in-chief'" --as if "gods-in-embryo" were divine only on Sundays)
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To: jjotto
Suppose Jews had voted 69-30% for Romney. Would he have won?

No.

It would have swung over 1.5 million votes...not enough...plus those votes tend to be concentrated in blue states in which a very large shift would have been needed to swing the electoral votes of those states the other way...

29 posted on 11/10/2012 7:17:10 AM PST by Colofornian (Some say "we're not voting 4 'pastor-in-chief'" --as if "gods-in-embryo" were divine only on Sundays)
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To: mosesdapoet
Romney ran a “Johnny One Note Campaign”. Used a poison dart blow gun when he should have used a cannon loaded with grape shot because he had pleanty of stuff he could fill that cannon barrel with..

The talk show hosts agree with your assessment:

Dennis Prager critiqued Romney as not knowing how to address the left rhetorically

Michael Medved said that because Obama ran 86% negative ads vs. Romney, it helped to suppress the Romney vote. (And that was 86% of ads directed by Obama campaign; doesn't count the SuperPac ads)

Of course, some of Romney's ads about Obama were negative, but not enough.

30 posted on 11/10/2012 7:21:27 AM PST by Colofornian (Some say "we're not voting 4 'pastor-in-chief'" --as if "gods-in-embryo" were divine only on Sundays)
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To: Colofornian

True! It means to many churches,keeping their tax-exempt status means more to them than speaking up for what’s right!

...and apparently,their fears are justified!

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20121108/GPG0101/311080394/Green-Bay-diocese-s-tax-status-challenged-after-bishop-s-pre-election-remarks?nclick_check=1

...add to that the folks that live as perpetual victims to whom the number one issue in their lives is more free government goodies,and northeast Catholics that vote for democrats because “John Kennedy was Catholic and he was a democrat,so that means democrats are good!” (I SWEAR that’s how some of them think).

For example:
I have this neighbor who is in her mid-sixties.She is Irish-Catholic, born in raised in South Boston,sent all her kids (that I grew up with) to Catholic schools,and was a lector at our parish for years.

A while back her husband and I were talking about how everywhere we go around here now,we feel like WE’RE in the wrong country because we’re the only two speaking English! I joked “What can we expect when we have someone in the white house that probably wasn’t born here?”

His wife jumped right in,saying how all those stories on the internet are lies! You can’t believe ANYTHING you see on the internet! (But then referencing Snopes to defend Obama!)

She went on saying how she believes Obama may not be the best president ever....and he’s BLACK....(she added THAT,I assume,as a back-handed accusation that I only dislike Obama because he’s black!),and went on with her diatribe about how she’s a born-democrat and democrats best represent the values this country was founded on! So I guess the country was founded on the murder of the unborn and gay “marriage”????????

So believe me...THIS Catholic isn’t defending catholics like her AT ALL!


31 posted on 11/10/2012 7:27:40 AM PST by massmike (At least no one is wearing a "Ron Paul - 2016" tee shirt........yet!)
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To: OldRanchHand
However, it’s disingenuous to think Romney’s faith didn’t play a role. Just think back to the daily diatribe of anti-Mormon articles and vanities posted here every day during the primaries.

FR is hardly a pro-Mormon site but I'd wager 99% of Freepers voted for Romney. I've seen no evidence that Romney did worse with conservative Christians than McCain.

32 posted on 11/10/2012 8:17:28 AM PST by MaxFlint
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

Christian voters should leave the party, right. That’ll work. /sarc


33 posted on 11/10/2012 8:44:36 AM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: Colofornian

Also, I find this surprising, although it has little to do with the topic at hand, but the U.S. Supreme Court is comprised entirely of catholics and jews. There are no protestants sitting on the court.


34 posted on 11/10/2012 9:04:32 AM PST by OldRanchHand
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To: KittenClaws
Not important.

Pretty soon it starts to add up to some serious duping.

35 posted on 11/11/2012 4:23:14 PM PST by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves" Month)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER
I guess I deserve the thread stalking, ROCKLOBSTER.

In the initial post that started this little spat, I was unfair towards you and I apologize. My emotions were high after our election loss and I didn't even think about the duplicate posts being out of the ordinary considering how FR had been running. Simply, I took your post out of context.

I should have answered:

LOL! I don't know how that happened!
LOL! I don't know how that happened!
LOL! I don't know how that happened!
LOL! I don't know how that happened!

Irrelevant now, as I'm taking a break from FR.

Keep your powder dry and your humor high!

KC

36 posted on 11/13/2012 11:52:01 AM PST by KittenClaws (You may have to fight a battle more than once in order to win it." - Margaret Thatcher)
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To: KittenClaws

OK!

Thanks. I apologize in return for being such a hardnose.

Fair is fair, your posts otherwise are right on the money. You may just have some internet connectivity problem.

Don’t stray away too far.

Can we be friends now?


37 posted on 11/13/2012 12:24:07 PM PST by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves" Month)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER
You have no need to apologize - I think I was the one with the little problem. I've taken my emotion too public, which is the reason I need to back off a bit.

I'll be lurking on occasion and when I think I'm ready I'll jump back in. I look forward to future conversations with you.

And ROCKLOBSTER, I like to think we were never “not” FRiends. ;-)

38 posted on 11/13/2012 5:15:59 PM PST by KittenClaws (You may have to fight a battle more than once in order to win it." - Margaret Thatcher)
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