http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/21/11797240-decision-2012-and-the-myth-of-the-catholic-vote?liteinteresting little read on how the Catholic vote may not be a big of a stumbling block for Romney than some think.
While the survey found Obama and Romney tied, at 46 percent, among American Catholics, support for either candidate broke down along more familiar dividing lines. Obama led heavily, for instance, among Hispanic Catholics, and Romney led (more modestly) among Caucasian Catholics.
Similarly, Romney leads among moderately or very religious Catholics, according to Gallup, while Obama wins Catholics who describe themselves as not especially religious. Highlighting further splits within the Catholic vote along lines of church attendance.
“You want to think about Catholic voters in terms of intensity of their religion,” said R.R. Reno, the editor of the conservative religious journal “First Things.”
“Catholicism tends to be a cultural-ethnic identity ... It makes it very complicated as to how to think about the Catholic vote.”
