Catholic Voters: Rejecting Obama

Catholic voters, like me, rejected Obama in 2008.

In 2012, many more Catholics are turning on Obama, and supporting Mitt Romney instead.

I wonder if it has something to do with Obama's assault on the Bill of Rights and his attack on Catholics' freedom to exercise their faith.

From Joel B. Pollak, Breitbart's Big Government:

Yesterday, the Romney campaign told reporters that it expected to win at least some of the “blue states” in which it is now competing with Obama in the Midwest, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The campaign did not give a specific reason for its optimism, but one thing these states have in common is a high proportion of Catholic voters. And Catholic voters have shifted dramatically towards Mitt Romney.

In September, the left and the media were exultant when the Pew poll seemed to show a surge for Obama among Catholic voters. He led by fifteen points, 54-39.

Today, that bubble has burst completely, and Obama is back down to a two-point lead, 48-46. (Few headlines this time from the mainstream media.)

Among white Catholics, Romney has jumped to a 14-point lead (54-40) after being tied with Obama in September in the poll.

To understand just how significant that is, consider that in 2008, Obama won Catholics by 9 percent (54 to 45) and lost white Catholics by just 5 percent (47 to 52). In 2004, the Catholic vote went narrowly to Bush overall (more widely among white Catholics), and in 2000 it went narrowly to Gore (and narrowly to Bush among white Catholics).

The 14-point lead Romney currently enjoys among white Catholics is almost without precedent.

Catholic voters are abandoning Obama for the same reason many other voters are: the sluggish economy, Romney’s strong performance in the presidential debates, Obama’s dishonesty and failure in Benghazi.

Yet Catholic voters have reason to feel particularly aggrieved, given the Obama administration’s battle with the Catholic church over the mandate in Obamacare that employers cover abortion drugs and contraceptives.

...Obama’s collapse among Catholic voters, and especially white Catholics, also suggests that the 2012 election is about much more than the economy, even if the economy is the most important issue. For many voters, the choice is also an ideological one, between a president who has attempted to increase the power of the government at the expense of religious liberty, and one who has committed to traditional values and small government.

I have so many reasons to vote for Mitt Romney and not Obama.

Near the top of that list is Obama's abuse of power and oppression of Catholics.

In addition to Obama's disastrous performance as president, I am at odds with him ideologically.

It definitely deeply concerns me that my religious freedom is under assault.

As Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki wrote in January 2012, "We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law."

I really never thought an American president would have the audacity to so flagrantly disregard the Constitution. It is unconscionable.