Nixon with a Catholic running mate in 1960 - insanity or a good idea?

[Guderian]

As we all know, Kennedy won one of the tightest presidential elections ever in 1960, and he would have surely lost if he hadn't have swept almost 90% of the Catholic vote. Catholic votes were divided about 50-50 between Eisenhower and Stevenson in two previous elections. For all the "can a Catholic be elected President" talk that was dominant in 1960 I think JFK's religion was a huge factor playing in his favor, since many Catholics that were otherwise Republican-leaning voted that year for him, partially because they wanted to see one of their own elected President and partially because they wanted to stick it to the anti-Catholic Protestants. It was a huge obstacle for Nixon obviously, to see his opponent with an entire swing-voting bloc in his lap. Now, the question is, what if Nixon picked a Catholic running mate (I'm not sure who would qualify - maybe Bill Miller who ran 4 years later with Goldwater)? Would he win more Catholics than he would lose anti-Catholics?

[Senator Libertas]

As a Catholic, I'm not a big JFK fan, but I doubt Catholics would have fallen for that sort of ruse from Richard Nixon.

[Padfoot]

I think it would have "helped" Nixon the same way Palin "helped" McCain.  Blatant pandering gets you no where.

[Bo]

Bad idea.