Obama, the Catholic vote, and the contraception mandate

JS Onlline ^ | 2-8-12 | Craig Gilbert

[afraidfortherepublic]

If requiring Catholic universities and hospitals to cover contraception for employees ends up hurting President Obama with Catholic voters, then Wisconsin is one place to keep an eye on.

That’s because it’s one of the most Catholic of the presidential swing states.

Among this year’s likely electoral battlegrounds, only New Hampshire (38%) and New Mexico (36%) had a higher percentage of Catholic voters than Wisconsin (33%) in 2008, according to exit polls:

An Administration decision not to exempt religious employers from a mandate to cover contraception has sparked an outcry among church officials and leading Republicans. (Churches are exempt from the mandate but church-affiliated institutions that serve the broader public, such as hospitals, are not).

Whether the controversy could reduce the President’s support among Catholic voters is hard to know, partly because these voters are so diverse and numerous that it borders on the absurd to generalize about them. They made up a quarter of the electorate in 2008.

So keep in mind some caveats in any discussion about the role or impact of the “Catholic vote.”

First, while it’s often portrayed as a large, decisive bloc in American politics, it’s not really a voting bloc at all. Studies have shown that being Catholic, by itself, predicts little about the way an individual is likely to vote.

“It ceased to be a cohesive bloc more than 40 years ago, and, as a group, Catholic voters have not always been the consistent ‘swing vote’ group that they are often portrayed to be,” wrote the authors of a research paper on Catholic voting from 1960 to 2004: “Camelot Only Comes but Once? John F. Kerry and the Catholic Vote.”

~SNIP~

[afraidfortherepublic]

[afraidfortherepublic]

Wisconsin Battleground Vote Ping

If you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list, please FReep Mail me.

[baddog 219]

[marstegreg]

“It ceased to be a cohesive bloc more than 40 years ago, and, as a group, Catholic voters have not always been the consistent ‘swing vote’ group that they are often portrayed to be,”

Perhaps we should call him “The Great Uniter” as he has united all religions against his policies. I can’t wait til he goes to the Alynski playbook and tries to villify them. People don’t look kindly on people who trash their beliefs.