From the NY Times:

As the Roman Catholic Church observes its annual “respect life” Sunday in this heated presidential election season, the unusually pitched competition for Catholic voters is setting off a round of skirmishes over how to apply the church’s teachings not only on abortion but also on the war in Iraq, immigration and racism.

The article mentions the CatholicVote.com video produced by the Fidelis Center for Law and Policy and how widely the video is getting play:

The Cathedral of St. Peter in Wilmington, Del., where Mr. Biden lives, is promoting a video produced by the conservative Catholic group Fidelis that is intended to persuade Catholic voters to put opposition to abortion rights and same-sex marriage above all other issues when they go to the polls.

“Many issues are at stake,” a caption reads as the video displays a fetus and choral music swells. “Some are more important than others.”

Brian Burch, president of Fidelis, said the group had created the video as “a voter guide for the 21st century.” Many Catholic churches across the country have put it on their Web sites, and Mr. Burch said some statewide advocacy groups had been distributing it to their members.

At the Cathedral of St. Peter, the Rev. Joseph Cocucci has displayed the video prominently on the church’s [web] page, and at each Mass he is urging parishioners to view it. Father Cocucci noted that the video also features smaller visual references to Catholics carrying peace signs and marching for civil rights.

“The video does say life is the most important issue, but if you notice it isn’t only abortion,” he said.

The whole article is worth reading.

Fox News confirms.

Catholics are celebrating.  A statement from Fidelis coming soon.

National Review’s editors have a solid idea for John McCain:

If McCain stood for a large expansion of the tax credit for children, and made that expanded credit apply against payroll taxes, he could deliver serious relief to many overtaxed middle-class families. The financial sacrifices that parents make contribute to the future health of Social Security and Medicare, and ought to be counted against their taxes to support those programs. It is a matter both of fairness and efficiency. An expanded child credit would also put money in families’ pocketbooks at a time when the chief economic concern they have is not the housing crisis or unemployment but rather rising prices. And it would make it much harder to paint McCain as offering “a third Bush term” on the economy.

Cutting taxes and saving babies. It’s a one-two punch that will Reagan Democrats worried about Obama’s liberalism and lack of experience into McCain’s camp.

Mr. Libertarian gave last-minute support to the King of Pork? Young is leading by about 145 votes and if he wins by the slimist of margins, we’ll have Ron Paul to thank! Pathetic!

Tim Pawlenty, considered near the top of McCain’s short list, says he would be “surprised” if John McCain picked a pro-abortion running mate.

“John McCain has said he wants a senior team in his administration that reflects his values, his priorities,” Pawlenty said on MSNBC. “He’s solidly pro-life. So I think he’s going to have a team that reflects that.”

Pawlenty said it would be “hard on the Republican Party,” if McCain chose a running mate who is “pro-choice or somebody who was … still caucusing with the Democratic Party.”

As for Pawlenty’s own record on life? It’s outstanding. From LifeNews.com:

Pawlenty dubs himself as “a strong and vocal supporter of pro-life issues,” and he has crafted a pro-life record both as governor and as Republican leader of the state House of Representatives before that.

With judicial appointments remaining one of the top pro-life issues, Pawlenty named Eric Magnuson, an attorney who has worked with pro-life groups, the Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Pawlenty spoke at the 2007 March for Life conducted by Minnesota Citizens Concerns for Life.

At the event, he minced no words when it comes to the pro-life position he takes.

“We are gathered here to say that there is no liberty greater than the right to life. We’re here to affirm that we need to extend that right to the most vulnerable among us, and that is the unborn,” he said.

(Full disclosure time: A native of Minnesota, I worked in 2002 to help elect Tim Pawlenty governor, but did not work for his administration. Even though I have no blog posts to prove this, back in 2002, I thought Pawlenty would make the ideal VP candidate for the Republicans in 2008.)

Blue-collar (Catholic) Democrats in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, who voted for Hillary out of concerns over Obama, are moving into the McCain camp. And McCain’s decision to talk-up abortion is the major reason why.

A new Gallup poll finds pro-life Democrats are abandoning Barack Obama now that more evidence has been presented that Obama takes a hardcore pro-abortion position. The drop in his support from pro-life Democrats also comes as John McCain has been more active promoting his pro-life views.

Keep it comin’ Mack!

Democrats for Life noted that support for abortion brings in money, but not votes for the Democrats.

LifeNews.com reports:

Emily’s List raised $52.3 million for female candidates who support abortion in the 2004 elections, yet, the states where Emily’s List ran an extensive Voter Mobilization Project, none of their Senate candidates won.

“Our Party gets a lot of money from pro-choice Democrats. But as this analysis shows, it is not converted into votes for a pro-choice presidential candidate,” says Kristen Day, executive director of the group.

“The choice for our Party is not about abortion, but the choice to either have money or have votes. Obama needs to decide which is it going to be?”

Obama won’t drop his support for abortion. But he also won’t talk about it much at all. He desperately needs the votes of blue-collar Catholics Democrats in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. (Hello, that’s why he picked Joe Biden!)

There’s a clear message here: Democrats know they need to downplay the issue of abortion. I wonder why? It would suggest that John McCain might gain by bringing the issue forward more often.

During his weekly radio address.

It is great to hear McCain speak at length about parental consent, partial birth abortion, and the born alive infant protection bills.  Most importantly, McCain called the life issue: “one of the central moral and legal questions of our time.”

Jonathan Martin at Politico:

A website called “Catholics for McCain” is urging anti-abortion advocates to sign an online petition aimed at dissuading the GOP nominee from tapping a pro-choice running mate.

“While we are confident that Senator McCain is going to ultimately pick a pro-lifer, it is very important that he and his campaign hears from us and understands our concerns,” says the statement above the petition.

There is no name attached to the form, but the two indviduals who have been blogging on the site are young conservative activsts who worked for Sen. Sam Brownback’s campaign.  

I signed the petition. Though, I am not terribly worried.

I can’t possibly imagine McCain would scrape his way to being even in this race only to blow it by picking a pro-abort running mate. Tell me how that would McCain help maintain a nervous base and win over blue-collar Catholic voters in Michigan and Ohio.

McCain and Obama are going to Saddleback Ranch for a forum on the Presidency hosted by evanglical megachurch Pastor Rick Warren. And he said he won’t forget to ask about issues of deep concern to millions of Christian voters.

From CBN:

“I’m going to ask them about abortion. I am going to ask them about the definition of marriage,” he said. “I intend to ask the tough questions, but I am going to ask them in a civil way.”

Remember, Rick, questions can be civil and still be direct. The time for softball questions is over.

McCain a “pro-life zealot?”

So writes the The New Republic Senior Editor Sarah Blustain.  Whether knowingly or not, Blustain has served up exactly what McCain needs most right now – a comprehensive case for social conservatives to back his candidacy.

Her investigative report included interviews from McCain friends back in Arizona.  One interview with Grant Woods, a pro-abortion Republican and McCain’s chief of staff during his first term in the House caught my attention.  Blustain asked Woods about McCain’s pro-life views:

Like many voters today, Woods said he “wondered about the depth of [McCain's] commitment to that position initially because I had the impression that it wasn’t something that he’d given a lot of thought to. ” But, over the years, he continued, “I was completely convinced that this was a very sincere position that he had thought through and arrived at.” Woods recalled a number of conversations with McCain, including one “up in the mountains late at night,” in which the lawyer suggested that reasonable minds could differ. “When we really explored it, it really came down [for] him to a sanctity-of-life question. … He did get very emotional one time we talked about it. He truly believed.

Well worth the read for any serious pro-life voter still wondering what to do in November.

Full article here

Zogby poll reports that Catholics beginning to swing to McCain.  The Catholic News Agency reports:

The latest Associated TV/Zogby International poll reports a significant change in Catholic support for the leading presumptive presidential nominees of both major U.S. political parties. Zogby analyst Fritz Wenzel explains that the shift amongst Catholics is due to increased concern about ”social values.”

While not minimizing the Iraq War issue, it seems clear that Americans are beginning to focus  more on so called domestic issues, including concern for moral values.

The analyst in the story cites McCain’s pro-life stance, and the future of the Supreme Court as critical factors that are swinging Catholics.  How about marriage, school choice, and lower taxes.  Not to mention an opponent who refuses to protect living, breathing children who survive an abortion.

What is most interesting to me is this shift cannot be explained by blaming the oft maligned “conservative Catholic  Republicans.”  Instead, it seems clear that Catholic independents and even some Democrats are getting turned off by Obama’s radical social policies.

John McCain as Happy Warrior is working well and it has the Dems worried…

Democrats are increasingly worried Barack Obama is not hitting back hard enough against rival John McCain and missing opportunities to tie the Republican candidate to the Bush administration.

The Arizona senator garnered his best reviews in some time last week after weeks of being drowned out by the intense media spotlight surrounding Obama.

McCain seemed to find his voice with the launch of two campaign ads, which received mixed reviews but helped him break through the media clutter and target the Illinois senator on the issue of offshore drilling.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who first endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) for the party’s nomination, said there are a lot of nervous Democrats around, and he is one of them.

Of course, Rendell might be sour grapes as he wanted Hillary to win. But the article in The Hill quotes other nervous Dems.

Seems the ol’ Navy boy was in his element in Sturgis, S.D.:

Thousands of motorcyclists greeted Republican presidential candidate John McCain with an approving roar Monday as he sought blue-collar and heartland support by visiting a giant motorcycle rally.

“As you may know, not long ago a couple hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I’ll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day,” McCain said, referring to Democrat Barack Obama’s recent visit to the German capital.

Looks like Stella got her groove back…

David Gibson at Beliefnet says the McCain-Chaput chat was an attempt to counter Obama in case the Democrat taps a pro-abortion Catholic running mate.

A side note: Gibson claims that Chaput called the Communion debate the “wafer wars.” I had heard that phrase from semi-comedian Jon Stewart. It was sadly re-introduced in the Washington Post’s editorial pages by a Catholic reporter no less: Joe Feuerherd, who used to write for the National Catholic Reporter, a dissident publication.

I think Gibson must have meant to write that it was Jon Stewart who coined the phrase. I just don’t see Archbishop Chaput using the phrase “wafer wars.” The use of that phrase is disrespectful to Catholics and most importantly, to Christ who died for us.

An intriguing thought from NRO’s Jay Nordlinger:

Abortion is said to be one of the biggest issues in the country. An issue that roils the country. And it is. But presidential nominees are strangely silent about it — election after election after election.

I know why the Republicans — the pro-lifers — are silent: They believe that abortion is a losing issue. (Rather, that the pro-life position is a losing one.) So they say something mild, indirect, and brief — like, “Every child should be welcomed in life and protected in law.”

But why are the Democrats silent? Why is the Democratic nominee silent on abortion, every four years? If the pro-choice position is such a winning one, why not trumpet it? I have a hunch about the Democrats’ reticence: I think the smart ones believe that the pro-choice position is not such a winning one. And I think they’re right.

Barack Obama is a radical on abortion — an extremist. He is for total abortion on demand. He voted against the Born Alive Act. (Of course, this separates him from no other mainstream Democrat . . .)

Couldn’t McCain make political hay out of this? Do you think it would hurt? Besides, if he’s going to lose — as so many people think he is — shouldn’t he do so while saying something important?

Mark Murray at MSNBC’s First Read reports that McCain will meet today with Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput.  The very astute and well spoken Archbishop promises to have an impact on the Catholic vote in the coming weeks with his  forthcoming book – Render Unto Caesar.

Senior Vatican correspondent John Allen plugged the book saying: “This isn’t just a book for Catholics, but for anyone who cares about the state of America’s soul —and how that concern might shape the 2008 elections.”

Now that Jindal is out, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (who I worked hard to get elected in 2002) is back to being my favorite VP pick…

In case you hadn’t heard, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, thought to be on John McCain’s short list for VP, took himself out of the running:

“I’m not going to be the vice presidential nominee or vice president,” Jindal told Fox News. “I’m going to help Sen. McCain get elected as governor of Louisiana.”

“Let me be clear: I have said in every private and public conversation, I’ve got the job that I want,” Jindal said.

The major handicap wasn’t necessary his youthful age of 37 years. Though, McCain’s age certainly made that a factor. The major problem? He was only inaugurated governor in January. But keep your eyes on Jindal. He’s got a future.

National Journal sets the table:

At a time when the Court is precariously balanced–with four conservatives, four liberals (including the two oldest justices), and the ideologically eclectic Anthony Kennedy–these contrasting approaches have provided opposing activists with nightmare visions to rally the Democratic and Republican bases during the presidential race.

The liberal nightmare (and conservative dream) is McCain replacing one or more aging liberals with conservatives who proceed to overrule or hollow out Roe v. Wade and other liberal precedents; throw gay rights into reverse; discard the constitutional right to privacy; outlaw all racial preferences and school integration programs; narrow the reach of civil-rights protections for women, minorities, and disabled people; bless virtually unrestricted government funding of religious schools and sponsorship of crosses and other religious symbols on public property; stop shrinking and start expanding the death penalty; mow down gun control laws; roll back the four decisions since 2004 that have checked Bush administration efforts to expand presidential power in the name of fighting terrorism; and make it ever harder for consumers and workers to sue businesses.

The conservative nightmare (and liberal dream) is an Obama Court requiring taxpayers to fund essentially unlimited abortion rights throughout pregnancy; ordering all 50 states to bless gay marriage; expanding and perpetuating the use of racial preferences far beyond the 25-year phaseout suggested by the justices five years ago; prohibiting tuition vouchers for religious schools; stripping “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance; banning the death penalty; striking down the new federal wiretap law; expanding judicial oversight of military detentions, CIA interrogations, and perhaps other operations worldwide; opening the floodgates to big-dollar lawsuits against business; eroding property rights; and perhaps creating new constitutional rights to physician-assisted suicide, human cloning, and massive government welfare and medical care programs.

McCain or Obama. Take your pick.

This time it surrounds Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.