Word: smith
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Sarasota County, set on one of the most affluent and conservative strips of Florida's Gulf Coast, since Franklin Roosevelt did in 1944. It's home to loyal Republicans like Katherine Harris, who oversaw Florida's controversial 2000 presidential vote recount. But in 2008, women like Joan Smith Geyer may decide Sarasota's outcome. Geyer, 62, is among a growing number of Sarasota Republicans voting for Barack Obama. A big reason, she says, is that John McCain hasn't proved to be the GOP moderate that Floridians thought their moderate GOP governor, Charlie Crist, was endorsing during the state...
...perhaps no surprise that the Al Smith Dinner, which gives candidates the chance to hobnob with Catholic opinion leaders just weeks before an election, became what Theodore White called "a ritual of American politics." John Kennedy and Richard Nixon were the first contenders for the White House to share the dais at the event in 1960. Over the next two decades it was a standard campaign stop, a light-hearted evening to honor the memory of the first Catholic to win a major party's presidential nomination...
...least, for Democrats - started in 1980. The Roe v. Wade decision had elevated the political importance of abortion, and while Catholics tentatively supported Jimmy Carter in 1976, they soon determined he was not the pro-life politician they had assumed. When Carter appeared with Ronald Reagan at the Al Smith Dinner, the crowd embraced the GOP challenger with warm applause. Carter was booed...
...then was Obama welcomed to the Al Smith Dinner, his hand on Cardinal Egan's shoulder as they chuckled together, while Kerry had to stay away? It helps that Obama is not Catholic. Some Catholics have criticized his support for abortion rights, but as he is not a member of their tradition, they don't feel the same need to sanction him. But more importantly, the political landscape for Catholics has changed since...
...social issues, Catholics are most likely to return to their roots in the Democratic Party. And that's particularly true when they hear fellow Catholics arguing that Democrats reflect their religious values. McCain may have gotten a longer standing ovation on his way to the podium at the Al Smith Dinner and dropped references to "defending the rights of the unborn" in among his jokes. But it was Obama who won over Al Smith IV, the event's emcee and great-grandson of the historic candidate. "Awesome," Smith told Obama after the Democrat had finished speaking. "That was just awesome...