This is from National Review online. The author is a well-known biographer, who writes frequently on religious and political issue. Hit the link and read the whole article (it’s not too long); the excerpts I post below don’t do it justice.
Paul Kengor on 2008 & Guiliani on National Review Online
The polling numbers on a Hillary-Rudy showdown point to a profound shake up. The latest Pew Research Center survey shows that Hillary would defeat Rudy easily. The reasons they cite, however, are shocking, and constitute a total reversal from recent presidential races.
In a head-to-head race with Rudy, reports Pew, Hillary would win the south and even manage to score evenly with voters who attend church at least once a week — voters who twice opted for George W. Bush by margins of almost two to one, and elected him to the presidency for two terms. A Rudy nomination loses slam-dunk Republican constituencies, begun by Ronald Reagan, and solidified by George W. Bush.
Most interesting, the data highlight a potent undercurrent that will be a force to be reckoned with by these two candidates if they make it all the way to November — namely, the remarkably negative perception of them on religious and moral issues, and specifically on abortion. Never have the two frontrunners from the two major parties polled so low in these crucial determinants.
A September survey by Pew Research Center found that of the presidential candidates from the two major parties, the two judged “least religious” were Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, with Rudy barely edging out Hillary from the bottom of the pit. The two New York politicians are also, not coincidentally, the two staunchest supporters of legalized abortion among their parties.
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The data from the 2000 and 2004 presidential contests were nearly identical in this regard. Take, for instance, these 2004 findings on church attendance and abortion:
According to CNN exit polling, those who attend church more than once per week made up 16 percent of 2004 voters, and they voted for the pro-life George W. Bush by 63 to 35 percent. On the other hand, those who said they never attend church, which equaled 15-percent of voters, pulled the lever for the pro-choice John F. Kerry by 64 to 34 percent.
Ten percent of those who voted in 2004 claimed no religion at all. Of those, 68-percent voted for Kerry, but only 30-percent went for Bush. In fact, Democratic presidential nominees do especially well among the un-religious in New York and California — who do their ungodly best to give liberals a fighting chance every four years: In California, 24 percent of voters, almost one in four, said they never attend church, and they went for Kerry 63 to 34 percent. In New York, the 12-percent of voters who claimed no religion at all voted for Kerry by 78 to 19 percent, offsetting Catholics in New York who favored Bush by 51 to 48 percent.
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The liberal media makes a big deal about how churchgoers are decisive for Republican presidential nominees like George W. Bush. On the contrary, it is rarely acknowledged how godlessness works for Democratic nominees.
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