How I am sure President Obama has the lead in the November election

I am sure of this because two people, one a close relative, the other a close friend, both female, have said they will most likely vote for Obama.  The relative lives in a conservative Midwestern state and attends church regularly.  The friend resides in a far-right conservative Southwestern state and has repeatedly voiced disdain for Barack Obama.  They may not reflect the total pulse of America but they do illustrate how badly the Romney/Ryan ticket is slipping in the polls.

Catholics for Obama - Biden

Well, that’s not all I base my premise on.  A new report conducted September 12-16 was just released by Pew Research that shows the President leads Romney among Catholics by 54% to 39%.  And this is despite the Catholic bishop criticism of Obama.  There are around 78 million Catholics in the U.S. according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) so that breaks down to just over 42 million for Barack Obama, 30.4 million for Romney.

Religion and politics expert John Green thinks this is due to more Hispanic and Black Catholic voters, but also includes gains in white Catholics where Obama is now tied with Romney.  Carrying this further, there are 16.1 million registered black voters and 11 million registered Latino voters.  Catholic voters who numbered 25% of the electorate in the 2008 election have backed the winning candidate in elections dating back to the 1990s.

In April of 2012 the two candidates were tied at 46% overall with non-Hispanic whites 55% for Romney, 38% Obama.  Hispanic Catholics were a solid 70% Obama, 20% Romney.  How Obama gained 8 points in the polls and Romney lost 7 is probably explained in several ways.  First, his selection of Paul Ryan as V.P., another stumble like McCain/Palin in 2008; Ryan determined to dump Medicare; and the fact Romney still has no clear direction on leading the U.S.

Catholics are becoming more diversified and more divisive.  Sister Simone Campbell and other nuns from Iowa led protests in Washington against a “budget that rejects church teachings on solidarity, inequality, choice for the poor and the common good.”  Although the official church doctrine opposes birth control and gay marriage, polls do show than Catholics use birth control in similar rate to non-Catholics and more Catholics favor than oppose gay marriage.

More interesting numbers include the fact that Catholics supported Obama in 2008, George Bush in 2004, and Al Gore in 2000.  Also, Barack Obama beat John McCain by 54% to 45% with Catholics in 2008 but John Kerry lost the Catholic vote in 2004 to GWB, and he was the first Catholic nominee for President since John F. Kennedy.  Go figure.  There has been a steady movement to the right by white Catholics but just the opposite by Hispanics.

And yet another engaging fact.  Both vice presidential nominees are Catholic.  Sitting V.P. Joe Biden is a part of the Vatican II generation.  They believe evangelization and catechism are less important than charity and social activism.  Biden accepts homosexuality and abortion believing it is a natural evolution.  Paul Ryan is firmly against homosexuality and he opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest to the female.  That’s heavy for women to overcome.

What we clearly have is a trend leading toward the Democratic ticket.  My relative and friend (I wonder how many readers have experienced this switch), the Catholics, the blacks and Hispanics, plus the female vote seem to all be favoring President Obama and Vice President Biden.  I know it isn’t a cinch yet and the President will make sure he continues on the same strategic path he has been following during the whole campaign.  Looking forward to the Wed. debate. 

Rush Limbaugh lies…but what’s new about that?

Pres. and the blabbermouth

The big fat oaf rants that the American public does not “support gun violence prevention,” as described in a MediaMatters release, saying Rush Limbaugh has quoted from a 1998 statement by then State Sen. Barack Obama.  Obama said “"the vast majority of Americans would like to see serious gun control," which the conservative blowhard said was incorrect.  In fact a ban on assault weapons and background checks at gun shows is highly favored with the public.

In terms of hard gun control, Pew Research found following the Aurora, Colo. movie massacre that 47% prefer stronger gun control compared to 46% who don’t.  A stark comment in the London Daily Mail which said in response to new stats on gun control following Aurora, it was as if it never happened.  And here lies the tragedy in the U.S. gun problem.  Americans have been so brainwashed by the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) they have become just lame on the issue.

More facts from MediaMatters show that 62% of Americans support banning assault weapons, even 49% of Republicans.  86% favor background checks when buying a gun, including at gun shows, and the majority want bans on high capacity magazines.  A majority also wants to limit the number of guns purchased at one time and a requirement to report lost or stolen guns by owners.  Most rational Americans would agree all of these are reasonable…not the NRA.

Typical gun owner inventory

Albert Bender in People’s World is concerned that the U.S. gun culture has been diagnosed as a social disease.  This comes from a group of American doctors who lament over the fact that “Mass murders of citizens by other citizens occur here with a frequency seen in no other nation in the world.”  When you consider the turmoil going on around the globe, this puts the U.S. in the enviable position of loving our guns over the love of human life, a comment I make repeatedly.

The docs cite facts that illustrate what a monopoly we have on gun violence:

• Over 300 million guns in American households-one for each citizen

• The NRA has a powerful lobby that threatens and fills the pockets of Congress to do their bidding

• Racism is still present in this country and along with hate groups headed up by those like the late Arizonan J.T. Ready, operate freely

• Massive inequality and poverty, particularly in communities of color

• 20% of Americans have significant mental problems

• Thanks to former President Ronald Reagan, there has been a severe decline in mental health facilities

• The U.S. has an arms industry supported by the NRA making billions annually “opting for profit over humanity”

The way Limbaugh should be

Media Matters exclaims, based on the above, “a lot of innocent citizens will be shot on a regular basis.”  That’s a pretty conservative statement when you consider there are 31,347 firearm deaths each year which breaks down to 86 per day, according to the CDC.  To point out the severity of this issue, I have started a Monthly Shooting Report based on media announcements, which is very conservative.

Since starting the report in March of this year, and through August, there have been 509 firearms deaths from 1,398 shootings.

So Rush Limbaugh lies, which any sane American already knew, but at the same time he has called attention to what I consider the most serious problem facing the United States today: the proliferation of guns that are being used by citizens to kill each other.  I repeat, gun worshippers do love their guns more than human life.  And for that prominent claim to fame, we have Wayne LaPierre and his henchmen at the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) to thank.