Opinion
Bye Bye Reagan Dems, etc.
By Mark Silk — October 14, 2008
Quinnipiac’s latest on CO, MI, MN, and WI disclose a few salient points on religious voting blocs. 1. In Michigan, where all Catholics barely split for Kerry 50-49, white Catholics are now backing Obama 55-37. Meanwhile, white evangelicals have gone from supporting Bush 2004 76-24, to preferring McCain 58-32. No wonder McCain kissed the state […]
Nutmeggers Support Gay Marriage
By Mark Silk — October 14, 2008
CT Gov. Jodi Rell can relax. Here in the Land of Steady Habits, the populace supports its Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage. Rell thought we didn’t, but we do. Maybe she was just thinking of her fellow Republicans, who don’t. But they’re more or less a dying breed in this state. Everyone else does–Democrats […]
Rasmussen Shifts
By Mark Silk — October 14, 2008
I’ve been looking at the crosstabs (premium access, I’m afraid) for yesterday’s Rasmussen polls of five battleground states won by Bush in 2004 (VA, FL, OH, MO, and NC), and the news about religious blocs is this. Catholics in the South have shifted significantly toward Obama, most importantly in Florida, where Obama has turned what […]
Show me
By Mark Silk — October 13, 2008
SUSA’s new Missouri poll has Obama up by eight points, 51-43. That’s a 13-point turnaround from SUSA’s end-of-July poll, when McCain led 49-44. Looking at worship attendance, Obama improved his standing with all SUSA categories–regular and occasional attenders, and those who almost never darken a house of worship’s door. But not at the same rate. […]
Catholic Partisan Preferences…the latest
By Mark Silk — October 13, 2008
While we’re on the subject of Catholics, here’s some late breaking data from our new American Religious Identification Survey–ARIS 2008. Since the 2001 ARIS, the gap between Catholics who prefer Democrats and those who prefer Republicans has nearly doubled, from eight to 15 points. Overall, Catholics are essentially tracking national trends, just a few points […]
White Catholics?
By Mark Silk — October 13, 2008
I just heard Cokie Roberts on Morning Edition claiming that the only bright spot in the polls for McCain is white Catholics, who, she said, according to the latest ABC (WaPo) poll favor him by 11 points. I can’t verify this, since the version of the poll published in WaPo doesn’t provide that crosstab. As […]
The Kristol Ball
By Mark Silk — October 13, 2008
Last week it was take the gloves off. This week it’s put the gloves on. How about: Start praying.
McCain, Palin slam Obama on abortion
By cmcmorri — October 12, 2008
Last Thursday at a GOP rally in Waukesha, WI, McCain said that, on the issue of abortion, “Sen. Obama has a clear radical, far-left, pro-abortion record.” Yesterday, Palin at a rally in Johnstown, PA, continued with this line of criticism, proclaiming that she and McCain will be “defenders of the culture of life” and slamming […]
Christians good, Pagans bad.
By Mark Silk — October 12, 2008
Yesterday, Rev. Arnold Conrad, past pastor of Grace Evangelical Free Church in Davenport, Iowa, prayed the following at a McCain rally in Davenport: I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god – […]
White Catholics for Obama
By Mark Silk — October 11, 2008
New Newsweek poll, showing Obama ahead by 11, has Obama up by a point among white Catholics, 48-47. Bear in mind that Bush carried white Catholics 52-45 in 2000 and 56-43 in 2004. It appears to be time to retire the idea that Obama has a white Catholic problem.
Iowans, the Presidential, and Abortion
By Mark Silk — October 11, 2008
Iowans definitely seem to be in Barack Obama’s camp–by 54-41, according to the latest SUSA poll. On abortion, Iowans split 53 percent pro-choice versus 45 percent pro-life. But whereas one-third of the pro-lifers prefer Obama, less than one-quarter of pro-choicers prefer McCain.
Gay Marriage in CT
By Mark Silk — October 11, 2008
My state of Connecticut, source of some of the most important First Amendment cases in American jurisprudence, is now the source of another: Kerrigan, under which the State Supreme Court determined that that state’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the state constitution’s equal protection clause. Never before has a final appellate ruling come right out […]
COMMENTARY: ISO: New leadership for large congregation
By RNS Blog Editor — October 10, 2008
Imagine that the four politicians running for president and vice president were clergy seeking to lead a large, diverse congregation instead of our nation. Here’s what the minutes of a congregational search committee might look like. (Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of “The Baptizing of America: The Religious […]
