2016 Oct 21^st

We now have the results of the Al Smith Dinner in New York. For those who don’t follow the arcane ways of politicians, Al Smith was the first Catholic ever nominated for the presidency by either political party. He lost and lost badly, partly no doubt because of anti-Catholic prejudice, and probably for some other reasons as well. Catholic politicians have been viewed with suspicion because many believe they will be agents for the Catholic Church’s agenda rather than representing the views of their constituents.  John Kennedy faced this problem and gave a remarkable speech asserting that while he was Catholic his thinking was independent of his church.

The dinner was to raise money for Catholic charities. The attendees were supposed to put political rancor aside. The major candidates were invited to speak and were expected to produce some humor, preferably self-deprecating, for the amusement of the audience. As you might imagine self-deprecating humor is not Donald Trump’s long suit. The result was that he didn’t give it much of a try, instead he stuck to deprecating Hillary Clinton. There were no physical assaults, primarily because Cardinal Timothy Dolan was sitting between Trump and Clinton. One curious fact: Trump’s wife, Melania, was seated next to Trump but Bill Clinton wasn’t invited at all. That wasn’t very ecumenical; Oh well.

Trump’s best line was to complain that while Michelle Obama had given a great speech and been applauded for it, when his wife gave the very same speech she was criticized. This  was as close to self-deprecating as it was possible for Donald Trump to get. We’ll never know what his wife thought of it.

Then Trump got multiple boos. This came when he said that, “Hillary Clinton was pretending not to hate Catholics.” The man is supposed to be a showman and he should have known that such a comment would do more harm to him than to Hillary Clinton. It’s possible that he did but the opportunity to deliver what he thought was a zinger was just too overpowering and he couldn’t resist.

His comment from the last debate that Clinton was a nasty woman has spread and has been welcomed by many women as a rallying cry. But one politician is on record as saying that, “Sometimes a lady must be told when she is being nasty.” This comment gets Brian Babin a Republican congressional representative from Texas on the map. Way to go Brian; now turn in your “southern gentleman” credentials.