Mormons and Catholics
The US primaries aren’t really within my field of expertise but I noted an interesting discussion about religion and politics, or to be more specific Mormonism and Catholicism, which has spread to several blogs.
The problem is this: Does Mitt Romney’s religious background (not his actual positions) limit his appeal to specific groups of voters, in particular Catholics?
The received media wisdom is that Romney’s Mormon background is a problem – even if Southern Baptists seem to have a bigger problem with the Latter Day Saints – and an analysis of the results of the Iowa primaries on the county level would suggest empirical corroboration.
An analysis of exit-poll data on the individual level from the New Hampshire primaries, on the other hand, suggests that Romney does appeal to Catholics as well as Protestants.
So in case you should need a useful case for a discussion of the impact of level of analysis in a methods course, the primaries could be of interest.
PS: And of cause New Hampshire isn’t Iowa and the procedures of the primaries differ.
PPS: Matthew Shugart’s post about Obama and post-partisan mythology is worth reading, if you haven’t already done so.
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