Democratic near panic in Washington as Mitt Romney bandwagon rolls -- Contrast in mood with happy Republicans is very evident as race closes

Mitt Romney Republican candidate looking happy

Washington D.C: The contrast in confidence between Democratic and Republican supporters here in Washington is striking.

Our newspaper Irish Voice hosted our annual Legal 100 event here last night at the residence of the Irish Ambassador Michael Collins, and the talk among the well connected from both sides who showed up was all about the election.

There were many movers and shakers among the large crowd and the mood shift was evident.

Democrats frankly were grim. “It comes down to Ohio?” said a former prominent politician. “It did for Kerry in 2004 and he lost it right there and we could lose it too.”

“We have to hold Ohio,” said another stalwart and major fundraiser. “We have no hope other than doing that -- It looks like the ground game is the only way we can hold it.”

The main hope of the Democratic side seemed to be in that massive turn out the vote effort. “It’s not the economy stupid,” said one political leader, “it’s the turnout stupid.”

A Democratic foot soldier from Pennsylvania talked about the massive effort underway there. “We will add two points to the polls,” he predicted.

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Several referred to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s race in Nevada a few years back when polls showed him five behind, yet, because of his massive organization, he won the day.

Democrats frankly are reeling at how hard and how fast Obama appears to have fallen. The ABC /Washington Post poll on Thursday shows him three behind, a similar margin to several other polls.

At the end of September he seemed to be cruising to victory with polls showing him well ahead, now he enters the final week and a half gasping for his political life.

Republicans in Washington have a pep in their step. “We’re ahead in the national polls, no doubt about it and the state polls will adjust,” said one big campaign donor many years on the scene.

Obama wrote off Romney far too soon said another. This is a fifty-fifty election he said, it was always going to come down to that.

Obama’s attitude in the first debate clearly cost him dear they say. He was just not prepped enough thinking he would easily deal with Romney.

One person discussed a recent lunch with Bill Clinton saying there was no great wisdom there either, only a sense of deep frustration that Romney’s reposition had seemingly won over a large slice of the undecided.

Right now in Washington the GOP are confident, even cocky. The next ten days will tell whether that is justified or a celebration too soon.

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Cardinal Dolan right to see the light and agree to speak at Democratic convention -- Huge error appearing at Republican convention only with closing prayer

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan (Photo: AP)

Cardinal Timothy Dolan is doing the right thing speaking at both the Democratic National Convention and the Republican one.

His decision came after a storm of criticism about him appearing only at the Republican National Convention in Tampa and not at the Democratic one in Charlotte, North Carolina.

There was also news of a secret meeting between Mitt Romney and Dolan at Dolan’s office in New York which took many observers by surprise.

Why a secret meeting? Why not acknowledge out front that the Cardinal Archbishop of New York was meeting one of the two men who will be president come January next year?

Clearly Dolan, by far the most powerful figure in the American Catholic Church, was displaying a partisan approach that went down badly with many American Catholics.

On social justice issues such as immigration and caring for the poor, the church is far closer to the Democratic party.

On doctrinal issues such as abortion and church affairs, they are closer to the GOP.

The Catholic faithful are probably split in a similar manner with the more conservative wing leaning towards the Republicans and cultural Catholics siding with Democrats.

So the New York archdiocese and Dolan went ahead and finally did the decent thing and acknowledged both parts of their divided faithful.

In a statement on Thursday, the New York Archdiocese stated:

“Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, has accepted an invitation to deliver the closing prayer at next week’s Democratic National Convention. As was previously announced, he will also be offering the closing prayer at the Republican Convention on Thursday of this week.

The news of the Democratic convention gig also came after the New York Times revealed that Romney had secretly met with Dolan last month.

“The two had a private meeting, previously undisclosed, at the chancery in New York, across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, said Peter G. Flaherty, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign on religious issues.


Secret meetings and offering benedictions to one side and not the other should not be the style of the Catholic Church and its undisputed leader.


Dolan has already displayed animosity to Obama and sued him over his health care law. He has made plain his disdain for this president and his policies.

On the other side, he positively gushed in a recent radio interview about GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan who hails from his home state of Wisconsin.

It has become obvious for some time that Cardinal Dolan loves his media image and pumps it up at every opportunity.

He positively preens in the spotlight which is harmless enough, but putting the Catholic Church squarely on the side of the Republicans was a major mistake.

It does not seem that long ago that Protestant churches mounted a savage campaign against Catholic John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Many of those churches never fully recovered from the backlash to that onslaught.

This is a deeply divided society right now, even at the level of the US Bishops where some have criticized VP candidate Paul Ryan for targeting his budget cuts at the poor.

Cardinal Dolan should have really known better than to totally align himself with one side.

Luckily he has seen the light.