From: Ouko joachim omolo
Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2012
With just few hours ahead of the US presidential election, a number of Roman Catholic bishops are not only making forceful last-minute appeals to their flock to vote on Election Day, their exhortations are increasingly sounding like calls to support Republican challenger Mitt Romney over President Obama.
Daniel Jenky, the Bishop of Peoria, Illinois, ordered priests under his command to read an anti-Obama letter he wrote last Sunday, the final services before tomorrow’s election. In the letter, Jenky cautions parishioners that Obama and a majority of U.S. senators will not reconsider the mandate that would require employers, including religious groups, to provide free birth control coverage in their health care plans.
This brings us to the big question as to who actually will win the presidential election, and whether the US bishops will influence their flocks to vote for Romney instead of Obama. According to recent poll opinion, 82 percent of Catholics say they don’t think their bishops are right on contraceptives as a condition not to vote for Obama. They don’t see contraceptives as intrinsically evil.
For Obama to win however, he needs the Ohio votes. This is the State that determines the presidential winner. Ohio has provided the decisive vote in the Electoral College about 50 percent of the time.
In last opinion poll seven of the polls showed President Obama ahead, six had Mitt Romney ahead and two showed the race tied. Monday’s polls also attest that Mr. Romney has only about a 7 percent chance of winning Pennsylvania compared to Obama.
In Ohio polls projects Mr. Obama ahead by about two percentage points according to a Quinnipiac University poll (conducted in conjunction with CBS News) had Mr. Obama five percentage points ahead, but a Suffolk University poll had a tied race.
Even though Mr. Romney has made strides in improving his image among voters and has reversed Mr. Obama’s strength in 2008 among independents, the Republican now leads among independents, 47 to 40 percent, although that is narrower than in some prior polls.
Mr. Romney also has made large gains compared to the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, among men, white voters, seniors and college graduates. Mr. Obama won half the college-graduate vote in 2008, while Mr. Romney now leads among that segment, 52 to 42 percent.
Mr. Obama, for his part, managed to maintain a durable job approval rating in the WSJ/NBC News poll, at 48 percent. He also maintained a huge edge among African-American and Hispanic voters, and among women, though his eight-percentage point advantage among women is narrower than in 2008.
Mr. Obama also seemed well-positioned among the dwindling number of undecided voters, who said the last few weeks had made them look more favorably on the president than on Mr. Romney according to the poll conducted from Thursday to Saturday. A majority of voters in the poll approved of Mr. Obama’s handling of the storm’s aftermath.
In the poll, conducted Oct. 27-28 — before Hurricane Sandy struck the Eastern seaboard – 62 percent of national adults rated Obama positively and 55 percent rated Romney that way. Among registered voters, it was slightly closer: 60 percent for Obama and 56 percent for Romney.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Peaceful world is the greatest heritage That this generation can give to the generations To come- All of us have a role.