Not this "little guy".
Posted on 09/13/2012 9:41:26 AM PDT by wmfights
A new poll by a Catholic advocacy group shows President Barack Obama has a slight lead over Gov. Mitt Romney among non-Hispanic Catholics, despite the stalled economy and his 2012 establishment of church regulations requiring them to fund contraception and abortion-related services that they abhor.
The poll of 2,629 likely Catholic voters, an unusually large sample, showed that 46.5 percent of non-Hispanic Catholics support Obama, while 45.6 percent support Romney.
The poll was commissioned by The Catholic Association, and it showed Obama getting 49 percent of Catholics overall, including those of Hispanic descent. Only 41 percent support Romney, while 10 percent are undecided.
Even if Romney wins every undecided non-Hispanic Catholic vote, he would only narrowly best Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s 52 percent share during his razor-thin victory in 2000. Bush won support from 56 percent of non-Hispanic Catholics during his comfortable win in 2004.
Even Sen. John McCain won 52 percent of the non-Hispanic Catholic vote in 2008, despite running a poor campaign against Sen. Barack Obama’s wave.
Romney is only slightly ahead of Obama among church-going white Catholics, 46.6 percent to 45.3 percent.
Forty-eight percent of the poll respondents were Democrats; 33 percent were Republicans.
Non-Hispanic whites comprised 65 percent of the Catholics polled; 29 percent were Hispanic.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents agreed with the statement that “[t]he Obama Administration has gone too far in placing restrictions on religious freedom when implementing their programs and policies.”
That’s a reference to Obama’s controversial 2012 policy that forces all denominations to provide their employees with free contraception and some abortion-related services via insurance companies.
Administration officials has suggested they will exempt churches that pass a multi-part government test. Religious leaders from many denominations have promised to oppose the president’s edict in court and at the ballot box.
The poll’s numbers will be disappointing for Romney, and should push him to step up his outreach to Catholics in crucial swing states including Ohio, Iowa, Virginia and Pennsylvania, said Catholic advocates.
But the poll showed that most Catholics are philosophically closer to the GOP than to progressives, said Maureen Ferguson, a senior policy advisor at The Catholic Association.
Seventy-eight percent said rights come from nature and God, not government, she said. “It gets to the fundamental question of government, she said, adding that “one [party] is 100 percent on one side, and the other is 100 percent on the other side.”
In battleground states, “Catholics continue to account for a higher percentage of the electorate than their overall percentage of the population. … Catholics are the key swing vote,” said Matt Smith, president of Catholic Advocate.
His group is trying to boost Catholic turnout in the 2012 election, and help elect Romney.
Also, Catholics who regularly attend Mass are also more likely to vote, he said, creating a slight advantage for Romney.
“Any successful outreach to Catholics must address the prominence issues such as the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty hold, particularly among Mass-attending Catholics,” Smith said.
Romney is trying to boost his Catholic support by hiring Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org, to spur support and turnout.
The Catholic advocates were coy about their registration, turnout and advocacy plans.
“We are producing a Catholic voter guide that will be very widely distributed” before the election by lay Catholics, Ferguson said, adding that “we don’t want to telegraph in public what we want to do.”
Not this "little guy".
To paraphrase Lewis Carroll, a poll means what I want it to mean when I take it.
The internals smell pretty bad. And/or these people are pretty phony Catholics.
OTOH, most of the Jews I know would kneel and kiss Obama’s ring. So, WTH do I know, anyway?
Actually this is an improvement. In 2008 I believe he received 55% of the Catholic vote. As a Catholic I can only say most Catholics don’t practice the faith, it’s too hard and not fun. But they still go to communion.
Interesting. Link? What are the numbers?
I know too many Catholics at my church that seem to be democrats first and Catholic second. It is a crying shame. Party over principle.
It’s the Church’s fault too. For too many years I’ve watched priests, nuns and bishops cozy up to Democrat politicians at church fairs, alumni dinners and St. Patty’s Day parades. And generally they were the sort of politicians who never met an abortion they didn’t like.
Did not matter. They were for the Workin’ Man. And they rooted for Notre Dame.
Take home message.
The Catholic Church is too inclusive, it’s time to thin the rolls.
You're right. I'm surprised the shift isn't more pronounced.
obama has actually started the process which will force churches to disregard their beliefs. I know it relly doesn't matter to the Rats about Evangelicals because they have always been opposed to the Rats, but the Catholic vote is a high % of the vote in swing states and we need more of them to vote for the Pubs.
Practical atheists follow their own creed, behave like Jews and Christians for an hour per week and for the rest of the week they behave like God doesn't exist. They write their own rules and turn a blind eye to ones they don't personally like or agree with.
Polls like this are meant to divide so as to conquer.
that is sick, they are not real Catholics if they can support same sex “marriage”, baby murder
Head in the sand thinking.
I may not like the results of a poll, but ignoring it (if it reflects the truth) is not smart. There are certain facts which are unavoidable. Roman Catholics are a high % of the vote in key swing states like OH. Right now most swing states are within the margin of error, or lean to obama. It makes sense to look at key blocks in those swing states and see if there is any way they can be moved to our side.
This does not change the tenets of our faiths.
This discussion has nothing to do about the tenants of one's faith. Roman Catholics are an identifiable key swing vote. It would seem that as a high % of the vote in swing states that these states would be solidly in Romney's favor after everything the obama admn has done. Unfortunately, these states are still up for grabs.
There is no “Head in the Sand” here.
Most of the clergy I know go after the big issues in their sermons and are NOT Democratic Party supporters. A parishioner got pretty irate with my last Sunday sermon and wrote a letter of complaint to my bishop. I was called by my bishop and he supports any position I take as long as it is consistent with the Catholic faith.
You’ll hear more sermons demonizing abortion, gay-marriage and the like coming from Catholic clergy than you will from any other.
I’m not sure what your point is.
I ignore lots of polls because they are inaccurate/tainted. That doesn’t say that I am backing off the fight. Far from it.
Deacon Francis.
The fallacy there is that the Church is trying to save souls -- even THOSE souls. But they should be denied Holy Communion while in that grave state of sin. That's sort of been the idea all along?
I attend the Latin Mass -- the pre-1960's version of the Catholic Liturgy (the main one). I can confidently say not one single regular participant is pro-Obama. No bumperstickers -- except pro-life ones -- but no one who is pro-Obama could stand to hear our priest's commandingly pro-life homilies and condemnation of homosexual adoptions, etc., week after week. This isn't to say all are pro-Romney: I'm certainly not.
This poll is certainly an exaggeration but there really is a difference between traditional Catholics and many of the mainstream Catholics who followed the errors of the modernist Church.
“According to this poll, the majority of Catholics do”
100% bullshit of a poll. The only “catholics” that will vote for the Muslim-in-chief are those that attend Mass once a year, never go to confession, and are on the gubment payroll, in otherwords the illegal mexicans that will vote in for Obummer to get more free handouts. McCain got the White Catholic vote in 2008 and Romney will do the same this year......but more.
These polls are crazy. Romney is leading with independents, Catholics, evangelical Christians, doing almost as well with Jewish voters as Reagan, and even a sizable number of Democrats are switching parties either joining the Republicans or declaring themselves to be independent (which we know what that means). Yet the press would like us to believe the race is very close.
“Roman Catholics are an identifiable key swing vote. It would seem that as a high % of the vote in swing states that these states would be solidly in Romney’s favor after everything the obama admn has done. Unfortunately, these states are still up for grabs.”
The whole 54% thing is a national number to my understanding. Which isn’t as useful because we vote by state and the electoral college. You would assume the national number is made up of all the state elections, but I can’t find a complete list ANYWHERE, but then I am awful at google. I have found some—the biggest split I have found was 70% for Obama in NM to 70% against Obama in La. I’m not sure Obama won the Catholic vote in any red state, I would love to know that (not saying he didn’t win it either, I just don’t know).
In huge states like NY and Cali Obama won the Catholic vote handily, both by 59%. I don’t know what it was in Texas, which is another big one but a red state. But in more than a few fairly blue and Catholic states like Ohio, NJ and Pa, Obama lost the Catholic vote in 2008. Can’t see that he helped his case since then.
Freegards
The Church has been around a long time, and has survived a lot of failures of personnel, in part because of its ability to return to its core principles and teachings...
Historically, haven’t a great majority of Catholics been Democrat though?
Many Pro-Kill Catholic Democrats and Socialists.
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