The God Gap

The CNN exit polls to which Eduardo links do not appear to support Amy Sullivan's conclusion that "the God Gap" has disappeared in American politics.  According to the CNN polls, of the 17% who said they attend church "more than weekly," the GOP enjoyed a 60-38 edge; of the 28% who said they attend church "weekly", the GOP was up 53-46.  And, of those who said they "never" attend church, the Democrats won 67-30. 

That said, the Catholic numbers were interesting.  It seems hard to avoid the conclusion that running candidates who profess to depart from the Democrats' positions on "social" issues (in the context of an unpopular war, congressional corruption, and popular minimum-wage ballot initiatives), is a good way for the Democrats to retain more Catholic voters, including Catholic voters who attend Mass.

I noticed that, in Missouri, the "God Gap" seemed slightly more pronounced, and the GOP Senate candidate won among Catholics.  At first, I wondered if Amendment 2 -- which creates a constitutional right to create cloned embryos for research purposes and which was promoted by a dishonest, but very well  financed effort -- had an effect.  Apparently not.  According to this article, Catholics split evenly on Amendment 2.  And, of course, the Democratic candidate, Claire McCaskill, who is Catholic, nevertheless strongly supported the Amendment -- and, this support clearly helped her win the Senate seat.