There are “catholics” and Catholics. If every American who had ever been baptized in any Protestant denomination was called a Protestant voter by the media, we would see similar voting patterns among that group, since it would cover a whole lot of “protestants” who never bothered to darken the door of church.
There is no Catholic vote. There is the churchgoing vote and the non-churchgoing vote, and voting patterns of Catholics who attend mass regularly are virtually indistinguishable from those of Protestants who attend services regularly.
Sorry to disagree with you, but that's not how the numbers are shaping up. There was a 10%+ difference in McCain support, between Evangelicals & Protestants (no matter how often they attended church) versus your weekly-mass-attending Catholics:
75% McCain, 25% Obama - [White Born Again ***] Evangelicals*
65% McCain, xx% Obama - White Protestants**
62% McCain, 35% Obama - State of Utah
54% McCain, 44% Obama - Weekly church-goers
51% McCain, 49% Obama - White Catholics*
xx% McCain, 53% Obama - Monthly church-goers
45% McCain, 54% Obama - Catholics
xx% McCain, 59% Obama - Semi-annual church-goers
38% McCain, 61% Obama - Occasional churchgoers
xx% McCain, 68% Obama - Don't attend church 21% McCain, 78% Obama - American Jews
Presbyterian Reporter, if you maintain a ping list, can you include me on it?