Robert Riley, once Reagan's point man with Catholics, points out that McCain will need Catholic votes to win:

Washington DC, Mar 27, 2008 (CNA).- Supporters of all major party candidates for the United States presidency are angling to discover how to best appeal to Catholic voters, who could be a key swing vote in the November presidential election. According to Robert Riley, a successful McCain campaign must win over Catholics to win the White House.

Robert R. Reilly, who was President Ronald Reagan’s liaison to Catholics between 1983 and 1985, wrote in an article published on Wednesday that Senator John McCain could not win the presidential election without the Catholic vote, which makes up about 25 percent of the electorate. “The worst thing he could assume is that [the Catholic vote] is going to fall into his lap because Catholics will have nowhere else to go,” he said.

Reilly argued that McCain could emulate Ronald Reagan’s successful appeal to the Catholic vote during his 1984 presidential campaign. Reagan’s campaign ran advertisements in Catholic newspapers featuring a photo of Reagan and Pope John Paul II smiling together. The photo, Reilly claimed, was effective because Reagan shared positions “completely congruent with those of the Catholic Church” on issues like the family, the sanctity of human life, pornography, and school prayer.

Riley went on to note that it won't be sufficient for McCain to just say he's with us - he'll have to to some concrete acts to ensure that he's not only part of the Culture of Life, but that he's willing to go to the mat for it. Anyone can say they want to limit abortion - Bill Clinton did, after all - but words won't save a single unborn life; actions are required.

We have McCain's pledge to appoint Justices in the mold of Scalia and Roberts, and that is a great thing - the most important, single thing McCain can do to advance the Culture of Life; but there is also the more day-to-day acts of government which can have far-reaching effects on whether abortion becomes more, or less, prevalent over time. Will McCain appoint people to regulatory posts who are friendly, or hostile, to religious groups who are involved both in the abortion debate and the efforts to provide alternatives? Will our mission to the UN aggresively push a pro-life agenda, or passively allow the Culture of Death to expand its reach in the Third World?

Beyond the life issues debate, there is also the broader cultural debate. McCain has placed himself in the forefront of efforts (thus far unsuccessful) to curb the influence of money on politics - will he also seek to curb the influence of money on popular culture? Much of the depravity in our popular culture is the result of unfettered greed in the entertainment industry...will there be any efforts to force Hollywood, as it were, to cease their slavish devotion to the almighty dollar and show some concern for the people they affect with their graphic violence and gratuitous sex?

These are the things we need to know about, and it is up to McCain to provide assurances.

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.battlebornpolitics.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/167