[Castlebar]

And honestly, Protestants didn't want Catholics in New York. Are you denying that? Al Smith was defeated for president largely due to his Catholicism. I ask once again, is the hard truth worse than the soft comfort of myth?

I think you're the one propagating a myth. Smith swept the states of the Old Confederacy, where Catholics were about as plentiful as hen's teeth. Hoover kicked Smith's crooked butt in the rest of the nation (including the heavily catholic Great Lakes states and Northeast.

[Bonaparte]

Smith showed his true colors after he was "cheated" out of the 1932 nomination by FDR. He endorsed Roosevelt's Republican opponents in 1936 and 1940. Principle and party came a poor last to the fishmonger's personal ambitions.

NB. Of course, the Klan intensely disliked Smith, but by the 20s, they were strongest in the midwest, not the South. And there were a few southern states that Smith lost in 1928, but in general, your observation is right.