Washington D.C., Jun 26, 2008 / 02:22 am
Deal W. Hudson, a Catholic political analyst, has criticized Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, for his stands on abortion and marriage. Hudson has also alleged that some Obama supporters are concealing aspects of the senator’s record which would negatively affect Catholics’ opinions of him.
“Barack Obama's stances on all life and marriage issues are antithetical to Catholic social teaching,” Hudson argued, writing in an article published on Tuesday on InsideCatholic.com. “Only with the departure of Clinton from the campaign has Obama picked up steam with Catholic voters,” he said.
Hudson said that, while there has been a 15 percent increase in the number of Republican-voting Catholics, in 2008 the Iraq War “has destabilized the dynamics of the Catholic vote” and has given Obama a “surprising” traction among Catholic voters.
In Hudson’s view, a “key breakthrough” for Obama came when he was endorsed by Prof. Doug Kmiec, a well-known Catholic pro-life professor of law who served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.