Dems Take Control...and Candidate's Faith

There are polls and lists and surveys…everybody tries to find ways to compartmentalize people or rate people, and when it comes to politicians, there is no exception.

So last week’s list of the Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill just adds more floof to the political arena. I mean, we all know that a good looking candidate has a better chance of being elected than an, er, ugly one (we won’t talk about my loss in the city council race here). But back to the list. I was a little disappointed that the list includes staffers as well as elected officials. Who cares? I was hoping that there were at least 50 elected officials considered attractive enough to make such a list, but no.

But of interest, Democrats far outnumber Republicans on the list. Part of that may be that there are many more Democrats in Washington now to choose from. Or, maybe the compilers of the list had a difficult time seeing underlying attractiveness through the ugly policy that Republicans cling to.


Anyway, the Most Beautiful person is Representative Brad Ellsworth of Indiana, and the next elected official on the list is number 4 Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats, of course. Many people had lots to say about a 67 year old grandmother being the best looking woman in congress, most of which I won’t repeat here. In fact all of which I won’t repeat here.


So Democrats control the House and the Senate, and now the Most Beautiful list (both male and female). What more can we ask for? How about the White House?






But when it comes to presidential candidates people aren’t comparing their looks much except to discuss Hillary’s cleavage or Romney’s hair (Boston Globe), neither of which impress me, but they are talking about faith. Seventeen presidential candidates’ (including Fred Thompson and excluding Mike Gravel) religious affiliations are listed in today’s Birmingham News . Catholics (7 total, 4 democrats, 3 republicans) far outnumber the rest, with Baptist coming in second (4 republicans). In addition, there are 2 Methodists (Dems), 1 each of Church of Christ (Dem), Episcopalian (Repub), Presbyterian (Repub), and Mormon (Repub).

I am not at all surprised that all the Baptist candidates are Republican. But I would have thought that Catholics would be more likely to fall on the Republican side with the Baptists. And I would have thought the Presbyterians and Episcopalians would land on the Democrat’s side. Not the candidates, of course, just the denominations, which are a little bit progressive.

This just goes to show that religious affiliation is no great predictor of party affiliation among candidates, and among voters the same is true. Even among Baptists, there are voters who are so disgusted with the republican leadership and who are realizing that things such as the environment are important so are more likely to vote democratic than they were in the past. Even in Alabama, where the democratic candidate could carry the state for the fist time in decades. It could happen! Just wait.