DALLAS - With Delaware Senator Joe Biden on the ticket, will Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama make inroads with wavering Catholics in the race for the White House?
In an election year that has seen both Obama’s campaign and that of his Republican rival John McCain try to woo voters of various faiths it is sure to be a question that pundits will ask in coming days.
Obama on Saturday chose Biden, 65, as his vice presidential running mate, ending days of frenzied speculation.
Biden, originally from the battleground state of Pennsylvania, will bring not only foreign policy expertise to the ticket — he chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — but strong working-class roots and his Catholic faith.
Catholics had strongly supported Hillary Clinton in her failed bid for the Democratic nomination and a number of polls have shown a fairly close race among Catholics with Obama leading nationally by a small margin.
Conservative Catholics tend to line up with evangelicals on issues like abortion but there are also many liberal Catholics in America who like the Democratic Party on economic issues.
Almost one-quarter of U.S. adults are Catholic but their electoral clout is somewhat diluted by their distribution.
According to a June report by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington, nearly four in 10 U.S. Catholics reside in New York, California and Texas, none of which are closely contested. The first two are solidly Democratic and Texas is Republican.
The report said states “where the Catholic vote could make a real difference are Florida, Ohio and Louisiana.”
Pennsylvania is widely seen as another battleground for the Catholic vote.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
(Photo credit: REUTERS/Jason Reed. Biden at a Democratic Party Debate in December)
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More than one way to kill.
A political candidate’s position on abortion has become the de facto litmus test of morality, and of respect for life. However, the data show that economic policies, health care and many other issues may be just as deadly. Consider the matter of health care. For a study of life expectancy in the United States published in PLoS Medicine in 2006, Harvard Professor Christopher Murray analyzed 8 years of census and health statistics data. He found an astonishing 35 year gap - in life expectancy based on county of residence, income, and other social factors. In my home county, Fairfax Virginia, life expectancy is among the top ten in the US about 81 years. Life expectancy in counties at the bottom is only 46 years, shorter than that in many developing countries! This isn’t a new finding - many other studies reported similar results. There are several reasons for such early death, but socioeconomic status and access to health care are the heavyweights. Thus, health care in particular and many other policy differences between the political parties can have as profound an influence on life as abortion. Clearly, the moral justification for voting cannot be based on a single issue.
As a Catholic, I am opposed to abortion and efforts to reduce abortions must continue. However, the pro-life concept must encompass all causes of death, not only abortion. The positions the Democratic Party has held with respect to universal health care, taxation, unemployment, war and torture, all of which have life-or-death consequences, are more consistently pro-life than those of the Republicans. My conscience requires that I vote for Barack Obama, and I will do so with great enthusiasm and hope.
Peter Kaufmann, Ph.D.
- Posted by Peter KaufmannPast President, Society of Behavioral Medicine
Secretary, International Society of Behavioral Medicine
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the SBM or ISBM.
Joe Biden claims he is a catholic and supports the culture of death. He claims he cannot force his opinion on others but does he have to proclaim a “woman’s right to choose” yet be offended by Sarah Palin’s choice to be pro life and try to slam her for it?
- Posted by Kath MI am a Catholic woman in PA and I could not be happier with Obama’s choice of a Running mate. Joe Biden is going to make a great vice-president.
- Posted by BPS Catholic in PAI am pro-life and always will be, there are far more issues to be considered here. I am pro-life from conception to natural death. Wake up America being pro-life is not just anti abortion, pro life is no death penalty too. Tell the truth America. If you don’t want to kill just don’t do it, know one needs a law to stop them from killing, they need a heart!
To reduce abortions: the Catholic Church needs to stop insisting that birth control is sinful. There is no theological or scientific or rational reason that birth control is immoral. Women die in Africa because condoms aren’t promoted as a way of preventing AIDS. Reading over some of the comments, I think many Catholics would actually be happier if they lived under Islamic law. Also, may I add that if Roe versus Wade is overturned, the problem will go to the states and it won’t stop abortion either. The lowest abortion rate in the Western world belongs to Holland. Why? People there believe that it’s wrong so they use birth contol. Sensible people! By the way, I doubt that European Catholic politicans are raked over the coals in the way that Joe Biden is!
- Posted by W. WentworthCatholics who vote for more war should be excommunicated - hundreds and thousands of innocent lives lost - why are their lives less precious? I don’t get it. The Pope condemned the Iraq war! If you can’t vote democrat, then please stop conflicting your ‘catholic’ selves and vote for Ron Paul - he is against abortion and the Iraq war! He’s the real pro-life candidate!
Non-hypocrite
- Posted by TheresaBram
What Cathollics do and what is taught are two different things
Catholics that use condoms are in mortal sin and are also going against church teaching as the end means of procreation is to create life when MARRIED and at no other time should a Catholic be having relations
With respect to Obama, he is trying to reduct abortions? How?> Has he voted even against the partial birth abortion of a late term fetus? Educate us all here. He is pro choice? Gee, what a great play on words here, so another words anyone can “Choose” to kill the unborn as they “choose”? How about I choose to kill you? Is that my choice? Is your life more important than that in the womb? You and so many liberals are so lost
With respect to Catholics who promote abortion and or use birth control, they will meet their maker and Lord Jesus Christ and will either be judged to enter heaven or go to Hell, as the church today after Vatican II has been corrupted from within and in its aim to be more “modern” has done just as you say, created a bunch of Catholics who dont even know anymore what is right, and even then go against it
- Posted by FrankI used to be Catholic until I realized how much hypocrisy there is in the church. Catholics amaze me…all their pro-life nonsense yet have NO PROBLEM using condoms and birth control which is taught against in the church. Obama is not pro-abortion…he is pro-choice, there is a BIG difference. STOP equating the two together. He wants to reduce abortions and unwanted pregnancies.
- Posted by BramRuth
What I meant to say in my opening sentence was “PRO LIFE”
Sorry
- Posted by JohnRuth
Most people that are pro choice that have amnio’s and God forbid find out there is a defect is for them to PREPARE, as I think she even stated, for this child. Prepare both physically around the house, line up doctors, and more importantly is mentally prepare
My wife and I never chose to have an amnio but instead we took the less invasive blood tests to see if our children are OK. It did turn out that our first has a slight case of autism. She does have special needs but we would not trade her for the world as she is so beautiful and special, but she is indeed a challenge. Simple tasks sometimes like getting dressed or waiting in line can be a challenge
As far as having a “choice”-she did not take the amnio to CHOOSE whether to kill this child as you are insinuating or let it go onto full term, she did to prepare.
As a man, and even as a Traditional Catholic I once could care less about the abortion stance though I knew it was wrong. That was until my wife was pregnant with our first and came home with the first sonogram of our child. WOW-hands, feet, a nose, arms and BODY! Even a heart beat.It was person inside there. That hit home for me and made me realize that the church was right all along, and who the heck are we to pick and choose who lives and dies?
Think about it. Having a child with special needs is a cross maybe God intended for us to have, but we are taught as Catholics that God will always give you crosses as he gave his own son our Lord. So if you or someone choses to abort these children, not only will you have that stain on your soul when judgement comes, but God will make sure you have some other cross to deal with. There is no escaping it, as earth was not meant to be heaven and due to the stain of original sin, we all will experience our trials and tribulations
Sarah Palin has solidified so many undecided woman I speak to in voting for McCain, between his heroics and her as a working mom of 5 including 1 with special needs, compared to Obama who has no experience, has expressed his disdain for white people in his books, and suspect relationships and the cafeteria catholic in Biden, the choice becomes so much more clear
- Posted by JohnI noticed in all the information about Governor Palin that she CHOSE to have her fifth child, even though it was a Downs syndrome baby. How fortunate that she had the CHOICE. Why did she have a test if she intended to CHOOSE to bear the child in any case? These are the words of her supporters, not me. They all compliment her on her CHOICE. I, too, admire her for that, but I am equally glad that she was given a CHOICE in the matter, thanks to our laws. She ws not forced to have a child against her will.
- Posted by Ruth PowellWhat would Mr. Biden say on this question?