Romney/Ryan is first major party ticket with no Protestant on it.

[All Along The Watchtower]

I think we should all admit that white Catholics are the most powerful swing voters in this country.  The republicans know that the southern evangelicals will always vote for them. 

Now in order to win the swing states, the GOP needs to appeal to the "Reagan Democrats" which are essentially white Catholics (who voted for Kennedy, FDR, etc.). 

The southern evangelicals may stay home, but then they concede to the half-black Obama and the Liberal Democrats. 

Catholic Paul Ryan ensures Romney victories in Iowa, Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin. 

Reagan Democrats did exist, but by and large, they weren't the people the media describes as Reagan Democrats. For the most part, they were conservative, traditionally Democratic white and rural Southerners, they type who had voted Wallace in '68, Nixon in '72, Carter in '76, and Reagan in '80 and '84, and who have been reliably Republican since. Reagan didn't win over working-class White Catholics in the North anywhere near as much as the popular mythology holds: just look at the county results from 1984 if you don't believe me.

This.

[All Along The Watchtower]

So what kind of Catholics would support a Romney/Ryan ticket, in general? I don't see their economic views being particularly appealing to many (most?) Catholics. And they are basically running on the economy.

[All Along The Watchtower]

BRTD, right-wing evangelicals aren't as bigoted against Catholics as they used to be, sure-but what of Al Smith's campaign in 1928? Or Kennedy's in 1960? Hell, you even had a good deal of mainline Protestants opposing them on the grounds that they would be dictated by the RCC.

And right-wing evangelicals liked Santorum only because he spoke their language. Using him to argue that right-wing evangelicals aren't anti-Catholic is like saying Alan Keyes or Herman Cain proves that Republicans don't have a sizable racist voting bloc.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Another fun fact:

America has yet to elect a President who has both self-identified as being an 'Evangelical Protestant" and is also from an Evangelical Protestant denomination.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Another fun fact:

America has yet to elect a President who has both self-identified as being an 'Evangelical Protestant" and is also from an Evangelical Protestant denomination.

Carter

..has said in interviews that he does NOT identify as being "evangelical."