Posted on 08/15/2008 2:43:50 PM PDT by wagglebee
LifeNews.com Note: Austin Ruse is president of the New York and Washington DC-based Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. These views are his alone and do not reflect the position of C-FAM. Ruse is also a member of the McCain Catholic Steering Committee and one of the first pro-life advocates to endorse McCain.
If John McCain picks a pro-abortion running mate, he's likely to lose. If he picks a pro-abortion Catholic as his running mate, he will definitely lose.
Right now McCain is skating on the thinnest of ice. At best, the election is tied. In many polls, he is 4-5 points down. He has yet to crack 45 percent in any national poll and is behind in key states. At worst, he is facing a blowout. Now is not the time to mess around with a guy like Tom Ridge.
The calculation is clear.
McCain figures Ridge could deliver the key state of Pennsylvania. Let's look at the record.
Ridge won statewide office in 1994 with only 45 percent of the vote. Why so low? Because he faced a third party pro-life challenger named Peg Lustig who polled a whopping 12 percent of the vote. Ridge ran again in 1998 and won with the much greater margin of 57 percent, but he did so against a very weak Democratic opponent and he forfeited 10 percent to pro-life Lustig, who ran again.
That Ridge, now, ten years later, could help McCain win Pennsylvania is far from certain. And then there is what McCain loses elsewhere for picking Ridge.
McCain is already suspect among social conservatives. And picking a pro-choicer will have the further effect of cooling whatever ardor he has been able to gin up among them mostly because of the fear of Obama. Social conservatives are largely not for McCain, they are against Obama. A lack of enthusiasm among McCain supporters could spell disaster for him come Election Day.
There is already a major effort underway to lure pro-lifers into the Democratic column.
The Democratic platform makes nice noises about motherhood and adoption. And evangelicals are getting restless to get involved in other issues. The McCain camp should not give them yet one more reason to drift.
And then there is the Catholic thing.
At the moment, McCain can expect at least tepid support among faithful Catholics, those who go to Mass at least once a week and who support the teachings of the Church on core issues like abortion. He needs this group to win the election.
He is putting them in an untenable position if he decides to pick Ridge - or any pro-choicer, but especially a pro-choice Catholic.
Tom Ridge is a public dissenter from one of the core teachings of the Catholic Church, that innocent human life must always be protected and may never be deliberately taken. McCain is asking faithful Catholics to pull the lever for someone whose position on abortion makes them sick to their stomachs.
A prediction: if McCain goes ahead with Ridge, it will lead to a public spectacle.
Wasn't McCain paying attention four years ago when another publicly dissenting Catholic ran for president? John Kerry lost the generic Catholic vote, that is, any person who claims to be a Catholic, whether he or she has not been to Mass in thirty years or even marginally agrees with the teachings of the Church.
This is an easy get for the Democrats, yet Kerry lost them. With the exception of his home state of Massachusetts, he even lost them in the states he won.
Kerry and Communion became a staple of the public debate. For the first time ever, the Eucharist was front and center in a national political campaign. There is no doubt this would happen again, perhaps this time with even greater controversy.
McCain would face the dead certainty that his vice-presidential running mate could not speak in front of official Catholic audiences or at Catholic institutions because this is forbidden by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In 1998, Ridge was told by his hometown bishop, Donald Trautman of the Diocese of Erie, that he could not speak on church property. In this year's presidential race, Ridge would be told by bishops around the country not to present himself for Communion.
This would become a recurrent nightmare for the McCain campaign week after week after week. Is that a winning message for McCain?
Finally, McCain is asking Republicans to accept a man who, if he wins, would likely be the presumptive presidential nominee sometime in the future.
This would effectively turn the Republicans away from being the pro-life party and would spell electoral disaster for Republicans for years to come. Pro-lifers certainly would have a very hard time voting for a pro-choicer at the top of the national ticket. Look at what happened to Rudy Giuliani in the primaries.
And they certainly would never support a publicly dissenting Catholic. The way of Ridge is the way of both defeat and disaster.
Another thing to keep in mind is the FACT that A LOT of Catholics ONLY vote GOP in presidential elections BECAUSE OF ABORTION (plenty of Catholics are fairly liberal on fiscal and national defense issues). Bush WOULD NOT have won either election without these Catholic voters, if McCain shows that he doesn’t care about abortion he WILL lose these votes.
Really? If someone goes to an Evangelical church and claims to be an Evangelical Christian yet supports things like abortion and homosexuality do you consider them to be a good Evangelical Christian?
He will absolutely lose my vote if he does.
And it's not just Catholics that will refuse to vote for him. This could be a fatal choice for McCain's campaign.
That's beside the point. The article claims Catholics will not vote for a pro-choice VP. I say baloney. How else would Kennedy get elected or Clinton?
See my response in #21.
Also, keep in mind that a pro-abortion president can do far more harm than ANY member of Congress.
I think McCain and Co. want to lose. That’s just great. Here we have a man who was not chosen by the people and who is determined to throw us off under and over the bus.
Don’t even get me started about Clinton and Obama.
wagglebee: “...nominating a pro-abortion VP is a clear indication that he (McCain) really doesn’t care and can’t be trusted.”
Well, duh! How many times does McCain have to sell you out before you realize he doesn’t care and can’t be trusted?
He’s already shown himself to be a “maverick” on issue after issue. I need no more evidence of his lack of conservative credentials. In fact, I expect him to give us another slap in the face with his VP pick. Lieberman? Wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
The only way I’ll be surprised is if he nominates a staunch, pro-life conservative. No doubt his advisers are telling that’s unnecessary. They think conservatives will vote for McCain, no matter what, in order to stop Obama. Given the postings of many FReepers, I think McCain’s advisers are right.
So, at what point does McCain actually start earning our votes?
Now, just who would best serve? That is the first question. All else is secondary.
Only those whom end up in that "best" category, need be weighed one against another, for various attributes. Otherwise, we are putting the cart before the horse.
“I pray McCain does not choose Ridge.”
Or Charlie Crist, or Tom Ridge - both antilife, but Gov. Crist is more sneaky about it.
The “Catholic” part is irrelevant. If he picks a pro-abortion running mate, I will not vote for him. It would be a sign that he’ll pick a pro-abortion supreme court justice.
“The fact that McCain would even consider a Pro-Abortion VP shows that he will also be willing to nominate a Pro-Abort to the Supreme Court.”
Good point.
“Precisely. There are plenty of pro-life conservatives to choose from, nominating a pro-abortion VP is a clear indication that he really doesn’t care and can’t be trusted.”
AND a clear indication that he does not want to win in November!
I am beginning to think that McCain likes the idea of running for President, not actually becoming President.
And with McCain's age and health history, this is even more of an issue than in the past.
So you want Obama to win? < /GOP Party bootlickers and RINO apologists >
I've NEVER trusted him and I'm still somewhat in shock that he won the nomination.
So, at what point does McCain actually start earning our votes?
I'm starting to think his entire campaign will be to try to make enough people afraid of Obama.
raybbr: “The article claims Catholics will not vote for a pro-choice VP. I say baloney.”
Good point. When I read your first response, I reached the same mistaken conclusion as wagglebee. No doubt there are many pro-infanticide voters who claim to be Catholic. However, I think wagglebee is also correct in saying that a Catholic cannot truly be Catholic if they rebel against apostolic leadership. The Church is one. You are either in it or not. You cannot pick and choose.
My other point is that there are A LOT of Catholics who ONLY vote GOP in presidential elections and they ONLY do this based on abortion. If the pro-life platform is abandoned either outright or in essence many will no longer have any reason to vote GOP.
Remember that prior to voting for Reagan in 1980 (and this was the first time that the pro-life platform was included), the majority of the Catholic vote had gone to the ‘Rats since FDR (the only real exception was Nixon’s landslide in 1972). Clinton and GWB won because of the Catholic vote.
While I agree it means very little at the voting booth. These are humans first and Catholics somewhere else down the line. Many of them call themselves Catholic and cheat on their wives, vote for pro-choicers, cheat at cards, lie to their bosses, etc.
The true rosary praying Catholic MAY not vote for a pro-choicer but I don't believe they see it as their primary reason for voting.
I also agree that McCain is so wrong for the GOP and we conservatives. I truly hate that I have to pick from the sorry list of candidates that may be on my ballot.
God forgive me but I swear I hope something happens to McCain that won't allow him to run.
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