There are Catholic sensibilities. When Bush penned his belated mea culpa over his visit to South Carolina's Bob Jones University, an institution whose leader has made anti-Catholic statements, it was no accident he addressed the apology to New York's Cardinal John O'Connor. The group hammered Bush over the visit, but once the letter to O'Connor went out, it declared the matter dead. The group even criticized the McCain camp for pressing the issue in phone calls to Catholic voters. Whether McCain overplayed that hand, or whether Bush did lasting damage to himself with Catholic voters, will become clearer Tuesday.
Catholics are Catholic.
They believe in contrition. A larger question may be whether the Bob Jones controversy, in concert with other issues, comes back to haunt Bush in November if he's nominated. Northern Catholics may not be a bloc, but they are a swing force in presidential elections. You have this media picture of South Carolina. All this stuff comes together at the wrong time for Bush.