Ed Kilgore has very interesting post about Tim Kaine over at Progressive Revival. Ed makes a persuasive case about why the Virginia governor would be an excellent running mate for Obama (he’s now considered a leading candidate). Ed cites Kaine’s facility with faith lingo and positioning.
Here’s the puzzling part. Ed assumes that Kaine’s Catholicism will help him win Catholics. But the Catholic John Kerry did worse among Catholics than the Baptist Al Gore did. So being Catholic obviously isn’t sufficient.
My first impulse would be to say that it needs to be a pro-life Catholic. But then again the majority of Catholics are actually pro-choice!
In other words, it’s utterly mysterious to me what actually moves the Catholic vote.