{"id":314,"date":"2008-09-24T10:05:25","date_gmt":"2008-09-24T10:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/a-massive-catholic-shift.html"},"modified":"2008-09-24T10:05:25","modified_gmt":"2008-09-24T10:05:25","slug":"a-massive-catholic-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/a-massive-catholic-shift.html","title":{"rendered":"A Big Catholic Shift?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ABCNews poll<\/a> is a bit “out there” in projecting a nine point lead for Obama. But putting aside the overall horserace number, two stats jump out at me.
\nYes, a lot of this is driven by the economy but there’s been a stunning change in just two weeks on the question of who is “more honest and trustworthy.” Just two weeks ago, McCain led on that question 44%-38%; now Obama leads 47%-36%. That would seem to indicate that McCain’s campaign ads backfired.
\nSecond, white Catholics have shifted massively. Two weeks ago, they favored McCain 57%-38%. Now they favor Obama 47%-46%. As a point of reference, George Bush beat John Kerry among white Catholics 56%-43%.
\nA lot of this is simply about the economy — and if they shifted this much in one direction this fast, they can easily go back the other way before the election — but, as I argue here<\/a>, there may be some more fundamental shifts going on among Catholic voters – even among the most devout.<\/a>
\nUPDATE: This new poll<\/a> from NBC and the Wall Street Journal has a much closer race, with the white Catholic vote sticking with McCain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ABCNews poll is a bit “out there” in projecting a nine point lead for Obama. But putting aside the overall horserace number, two stats jump out at me. Yes, a lot of this is driven by the economy but there’s been a stunning change in just two weeks on the question of who is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nA Big Catholic Shift? - Steven Waldman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/09\/a-massive-catholic-shift.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Big Catholic Shift? - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ABCNews poll is a bit “out there” in projecting a nine point lead for Obama. But putting aside the overall horserace number, two stats jump out at me. 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He's also the author of the Founding Faith: Politics, Providence, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, which has been published by Random House. Before co-founding Beliefnet in 1999, Waldman was a political journalist, serving as National Editor of U.S. News & World Report and National Correspondent for Newsweek. 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