US Elections 2008 - II

[Guest]

This is a very interesting piece on how presidential campaigns (or any other PR campaigns) work here in the US. Its also interesting for the basic story that (a) catholics are a voting-bloc (b) catholics are more numerous amongst latinos then blacks © religious groups in general show political preferences (d) presidential campaigns have staff members that deal with different religious groups (as liasons?) . Read on..

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/8781.html

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->“Hillary Clinton, probably because of her Methodism and her liberalism, holds teachings that are very closely tied to the Catholic Church. That fits very well with Catholic sensibilities,” Green said. “I think she talks in ways that Catholics can understand. He speaks in the cadences of the black church, with a real Protestant approach.”

............

“Senator Obama has captured better than any of the other candidates a concern that religion has been used as a wedge issue – that there has been a deliberate effort on the part of conservatives to basically try and gain political advantage by pointing out how much Democrats disrespect religion,” said Kmiec, who served as a legal adviser to Republican Mitt Romney. “On the other side, Democrats have been too quick to disregard the significance of faith in people’s lives – that they have been too quick to embrace wholesale secularism.”<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

The above story was hotly contested amongst politico-staff and BO-campaign. Even the TITLE was hotly contested.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Among the items agitating the Obama campaign was the initial headline: "Obama support soft among Catholics.” <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

The entire conversation here..

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/8789.html

How the sausage gets made