Bush, Kerry, and a battle for Catholics

[AmyStrange]

Bush, Kerry, and a battle for Catholics

As Bush meets with pope, the once-Democratic bloc is fluid, despite Kerry's Catholicism.

By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

FROM: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0604/p01s01-uspo.html
WASHINGTON – When George W. Bush meets with the Pope Friday at the Vatican, the third such visit of this president's term, it will be tempting to see a non-Catholic president reaching out to Roman Catholic voters as he runs for reelection.
Catholics represent nearly 23 percent of American voters; both major presidential campaigns are ramping up their efforts to woo Catholics, along with other faith groups. And with Democratic Sen. John Kerry poised to become the first Catholic major-party nominee since John F. Kennedy, the nexus of politics and Catholicism is under the microscope to a degree unprecedented in more than 40 years.

But a profound shift in voter behavior since the 1960 election has rendered the old analysis meaningless. "There is no real Catholic vote to speak of," says John Kenneth White, a political scientist at Catholic University. "The real split in American politics today is between those who attend services frequently and those who go seldom or not at all."

In 1960, when Kennedy was elected, the divide between Catholics and white Protestants was real. Three-fourths of Catholics supported Kennedy and three-fourths of white Protestants backed the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon.

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[Sporadicus]

1. No Self-Respecting Catholic I Know

would consider supporting a fundie-wannabee like *.

[noahmijo]

2. Typically Catholics vote Democrat. Secondly no one can forget...

Bush's visit to Bob Jones University and his pandering to them. I think there should be a campaign that reminds all of us good Catholic voters that Bush pandered to an institution which loudly decries the Catholic church.