US ELECTIONS 2008: Obama and McCain make faith-based pitches to vital section of electorate
From Andrew Purcell in New York

THE Al Smith Memorial Dinner in New York is the election season's last pause. In observance of tradition and in search of Catholic votes, John McCain and Barack Obama stopped slandering each other for an evening to pose for a photograph with Cardinal Egan, tell a few jokes and raise several million dollars for charity. It was an artificial ceasefire. In swing states where Catholics hold the balance of power, campaign adverts kept on running.

Al Smith was governor of New York and the first Roman Catholic to be nominated by either party. He ran for president in 1928 on the Democratic ticket and was soundly beaten by Herbert Hoover, a defeat in which religious prejudice played no small part.

Catholics make up roughly a quarter of the electorate, closer to a third in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Missouri. Obama and McCain have both made determined appeals for their support.

After praising each other, the candidates took a few swipes in the guise of good humour. Obama noted that he was too young to have met Smith, but that "from everything Senator McCain has told him, the two of them had a great time together before prohibition". McCain's gags were more pointed. "Even in this room full of proud Manhattan Democrats, I can't shake that feeling that some people here are pulling for me," he said. "I'm delighted to see you here tonight, Hillary."

That crack is deadly serious: Clinton trounced Obama among Pennsylvania's Catholics by a margin of 40% in the Democratic primary, more than enough to suggest an opening for McCain in a state that George Bush only narrowly lost to John Kerry.

Kerry is a devoted Catholic who nonetheless supports abortion rights. In 2004, the Archdiocese of New York did not invite the nominees to speak at the Al Smith dinner, ostensibly because "the issues in this year's campaign could provoke division and disagreement". Most interpreted this as a coded reference to Kerry's pro-choice stance.

It took a Democrat, John F Kennedy, to prove that a Catholic could win the presidency, but the faithful have been steadily deserting the party ever since, put off by its aggressive secularism.

This reached its nadir in 1992 when Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey was denied a speaking slot at the Democratic convention because of his anti-abortion views.

Obama, aghast at his party's abandonment of religious voters in a country where 92% of the population believe in God, has reinforced existing efforts to redress this, stressing his Christian beliefs at every opportunity, inviting Casey's son, Bob Jr, to speak at this year's convention and selecting a Catholic, Joe Biden, as his running mate.

In 1998, the Catholic Voter Project concluded that although such a large group could not be characterised as a homogenous voting bloc, trends could be detected, meaning faith-based pitches could be successful. Political consultant Karl Rove, with the help of "Catholic gatekeeper" Deal Hudson, ushered millions of worshippers out of the Democratic party and into the arms of Republicans.

Conservative bishops denied Kerry communion and suggested that voting for a candidate who supports abortion was as grave a sin as the act itself. It helped that Bush is a born-again Christian, fluent in the language of prayer. When the New Yorker asked Rove if McCain has the same purchase with churchgoers, he replied flatly, "he does not". Obama, who talks about faith with an ease McCain cannot match, has attempted to take advantage, particularly among young evangelicals and Catholics.

In Pennsylvania, this means campaign- ing with Casey Jr at his side and setting up "nun banks" to call lists of Catholic voters. He is also reformulating the Democratic position on abortion. Obama has a committed pro-choice record, enough to win the endorsement of the National Abortion And Reproductive Rights Action League over Clinton, but he has taken great care to present this as protecting a woman's right to choose, saying: "Nobody's pro-abortion. I think it's always a tragic situation."

In Wednesday's debate, McCain characterised himself as "proudly pro-life" and accused Obama of aligning himself with "the extreme aspect of the pro-abortion movement in America," pointing to Obama's refusal to commit to the Born-alive Infants Protection Act in Illinois as evidence he supports infanticide.

Obama's response was typically smooth: "I am completely supportive of a ban on late-term abortions, partial-birth or otherwise, as long as there's an exception for the mother's health and life, and this did not contain that exception." To his opponent, this was evasion. "He's health for the mother'," McCain said, framing quote marks in the air with his fingers. "You know, that's been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything."

The two men would certainly appoint very different supreme court judges. The landmark ruling guaranteeing a woman's right to an abortion, Roe v Wade, is not the solid wedge it used to be. During the last election, a group called Catholic Answers distributed a pamphlet that identified five "non-negotiable" issues for religious voters, including gay marriage and stem cell research. This time, Catholic progressives are countering with a leaflet of their own, outlining pledges on war, taxes, healthcare and the environment.

Former Republican Douglas Kmiec, who served in Ronald Reagan's Justice Department alongside conservative supreme court judge Samuel Alito, is spearheading Obama's attempt to woo Catholics.

He told the New York Times that "the proper question for Catholics to ask is not Can I vote for him?' but Why shouldn't I vote for the candidate who feels more passionately and speaks more credibly about economic fairness for the average family, who will be a true steward of the environment and who will treat the immigrant family with respect?'"

Appeals to Catholic doctrine are a powerful aspect of the McCain campaign's bid to portray Obama as culturally alien to white, working-class people, but in Ohio and Pennsylvania, deep uncertainty over jobs and pensions will cause many to vote with their bank book, not their Bible.