Thursday, July 31, 2008

But they're Catholic

Over on the dark side, The New Republic, has a piece on how Obamamania's choice for Veep will be Catholic and how that may help him in the election.
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius reportedly sit on top of Barack Obama's vice presidential short list. In late June, Barack Obama called Sebelius "as talented a public official as there is right now," and just two days ago, Politico reported that Kaine was "very, very high" up in considerations for v.p. What binds these two--aside from being effective Democratic governors of red (or reddish) states--is that they're both Roman Catholic. And given the fact that Catholics were such a difficult group for Obama in the primaries, and that they heavily populate swing states like New Mexico and Pennsylvania, Sebelius's and Kaine's Catholicism should be a point in their favor. (Joe Biden, another short-lister, is Catholic as well.) But their similarities mask a surprising gulf: Sebelius and Kaine have had markedly different political relationships with the Church.

Sebelius attended a Catholic women's college, but she has not made her Catholicism a central part of her political biography. She has stated that her religious beliefs are private, a position that liberal Catholics have been taking ever since JFK. When she gave the Democratic response to the last State of the Union in January, she did not mention her own faith or the nation's, and she didn't describe any of the challenges facing the nation as moral challenges. This reticence to apply her faith to her political life has a downside: It has severely limited her ability to articulate a moral rationale for her commitment to other issues such as universal health care, which the Catholic Church considers a moral obligation that society owes its members.

Yeah, I remember how Catholicism helped President John Kerry.

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