Religion and the campaign, according to Pew
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Pew’s latest poll, which has Obama up over Romney by eight points, cast some interesting light on how religion is factoring into the electorate’s preferences.
Let’s start with evangelicals. As widely suspected, they are proportionately no less supportive of Mitt Romney the Mormon than they were of John McCain the Non-Mormon in 2008. It’s 73 percent who say they’ll vote for Romney versus 74 percent who voted for McCain. And there remain some undecideds, some of whom will doubtless end up in the Romney camp–which might bring him close to George W. Bush’s all-time evangelical high of 78 percent. (Only 19 percent support Obama now, as opposed to 26 percent who voted for him last time around.) Of course, what the survey can’t tell us is what the evangelical turnout will be. If a lot of evangelicals decide not to get off their tuchuses and vote, then it’s bad news for Romney in states like Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia.
Obama looks to significantly improve his standing with mainline Protestants. He lost them by 11 points to McCain, but he’s now just one point down to Romney. On the other hand, the Nones–those who say they have no religion who Pew insists on calling “Unaffiliated”–have slid away from Obama a bit. Whereas they voted for him over McCain 75 percent to 23 percent, they’re only supporting him over Romney 65 percent to 27 percent–a swing of 14 points. Maybe these are the libertarians who have signed on to the Tea Party.
Meanwhile, and despite all the tub-thumping by the Catholic bishops, Obama’s Catholic support has remained absolutely firm: It was 54 percent in 2008 and it’s 54 percent now. Indeed, with Romney running behind McCain at 39 percent to 45 percent, it looks like the president will outperform himself with Catholics this time around. Evidently that Fortnight for Freedom from Contraception didn’t have much of an impact.
My guess is that Romney has lost ground with mainline Republican women with the increased salience of abortion. As for Obama, he’s got to figure out how to improve his standing with the non-religious without alienating evangelicals even further. Good luck with that.
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15 Comments
Notice where progressive Catholicism has taken us — they might put Mr. 666 back in the White House. Progressive Catholics, here’s a message for you: you’re not really Catholic, and you are in the process of destroying our once-great country by your support of Obama.
Oh Jim, come on you sound like chicken little, the sky is falling. With our constitution, checks and ball emcees, Supreme Court and ability to impeach we don’t have to be afraid of any president.
Right, Tony — that’s why there are detention camps all set to go in the USA right now. Go and Google it and see what I’m talking about. These USA camps, which currently are empty, have the barbed wire angled inward — that is, the barbed wire is designed to keep people IN, not OUT. If we have a major environmental or financial catastrophe, or a nuclear war as a result of Iran’s access to the atomic bomb, and civil disorder results, Obama’s brown shirts will round us up just like they did in Nazi Germany. If this all comes to pass, and you find yourself in a detention camp, it won’t make me happy — it will be too late.
Jim you sound like your losing it. For your own mental health get help. Remember what it says in the Bible that JPIi often said, Be not afraid.
Be not afraid, indeed — but, if I see a railroad train coming at me, God has given me common sense to get off the track.
I see, so in what ways are you “getting off the track”? Are you going to leave the country and vote remotely? Because short of that I think there are many people who are simply being played to vote against a politician instead of voting for a politician.
So, Tony, just assume I’m losing it and don’t Google it. Who’s being myopic here?
What shall I google? Chicken Little? Seriously?
Google “detention camps USA”
Jim, the only semi-credible threat I could find was from InfoWars, and that talked about camps erected on US military bases to aid refugees (think Hurricane Andrew, Katrina, etc.) in times of emergency.
As far as I have been able to find, there is no credible evidence to suggest that the purpose of these emergency centers is to illegal and unconstitutionally house American citizens against their will.
If you have any _credible_ evidence that supports your assertions about “internment camps”, then I would love to see the actual links instead of telling people to Google it for themselves. It would also be wise to avoid conspiracy theory websites as much as possible.
Thank you Blag, you responded before I could.
So much for the teaching authority of the Bishops, Catholics just don’t care about their involvemenment in politics. The bishops should get out of politics. Their call to arms for religious freedom is a joke, nobody cares and the polls show it.
Tony — I am someone, and I care — so, there is at least one person who does care, and appreciates the bishops’ call for resistance.
Here in Alaska some of the Tea Party are going to write in Ron Paul. Wonder if this has any play in the lower 48.
Unfortunately, AMC grad, that is a waste of a vote. We must get the Marxist boy out of office, and we must do it now.