Obama's VP and the Catholic Vote

justin-paulette

Justin Paulette

Justin Paulette is an attorney practicing international law in bella Italia. He hails from the great Buckeye State, "The Heart of it All," the only state with a bridge which you can cross and still be on the same side of the river, home of the hot dog, pop top soda can and the largest basket in the world! Though he's spent the past decade jet-setting across the Atlantic with one foot in London and the other on Capitol Hill, he still fancies himself a Mid-western, God-fearing, role-playing geek at heart.
Posted:
09/19/08

Sarah Palin, for all the conjecture as to whether she can reel in disaffected Hillary voters, has already achieved her primary mission: She delivered the conservative base to McCain. Hopeful and enthusiastic again, conservatives have been charmed and heartened by the sensational VP pick.


Obama's selection has met with far less success. Joe Biden's Catholic faith was certainly anticipated to draw that demographics to the Democrat's camp - Obama repeatedly cited Biden's Catholicism while introducing the VP selection. However, Biden suffers from the defect common to all Democrats where Catholic sensibilities are concerned - he supports abortion, and like Obama, he supports it to the point of infanticide.


Such views were known and reviled by ardent Catholics prior to Biden's selection to the ticket. However, since that time, Biden has only made things worse. Biden's first clumsy foray into religious terrain was on NBC's Meet the Press, where Biden lied - not about McCain, not about the Republicans - but about the Catholic Church. Revising Christianity to suit his own moral compass, Biden set himself in direct conflict with the Church, prompting dozens of bishops and Christian groups to disclaim his heresy (that is, his willful misrepresentation of Church doctrine).


Biden seems more a renegade enemy of the church than a faithful communicant. Britain's Telegraph today fronted an article entitled, Joe Biden Loses Barack Obama the Catholic Vote. Abortion has become a nation-wide issue, yet again - awakening Catholic moral conscience and further eroding the once-faithfully Democratic voting-block.


As noted previously: As goes the Catholic vote, so goes the election. Biden's brand of Catholicism has not benefited Obama's electoral hopes.