Obama and Catholics

This increasingly is the topic of news stories coming out in advance of the Democratic convention in Denver at the end of the month. It’s a key ‘bloc’ of voters the Democrat needs to capture, though Catholics don’t vote as a bloc. Actually, that sentence breaks down into two realities: Obama is after ‘the Catholic vote’, and Catholics are divided.

RealClearPolitics has this piece by Pat Buchanan addressing Obama’s Catholic problem.

In the Pennsylvania primary, Barack Obama rolled up more than 90 percent of the African-American vote. Among Catholics, he lost by 40 points. The cool liberal Harvard Law grad was not a good fit for the socially conservative ethnics of Altoona, Aliquippa and Johnstown.

But if Barack had a problem with Catholics then, he has a far higher hurdle to surmount in the fall, with those millions of Catholics who still take their faith and moral code seriously.

One of the ways he’s trying to do that is by associating closely with Pennsylvania senator Bob Casey Jr., which is getting a lot of coverage. But not all (or much) of that press identifies the problems with that. Which will become clearer if Casey is given a prominent role at the convention.

While Catholic pro-life Democrat Sen. Bob Casey is being considered for a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver this August, any goodwill gained by such a move could be lost if convention delegates approve a proposal that would further establish support for abortion rights in the Democratic party platform.

So while Obama is addressing his Catholic problem, he needs to consider his abortion problem.