Today POLITICO Arena asks:

Does the appearance of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan (who is suing the Obama administration) to deliver a blessing to the GOP convention blur the line between religion and politics?

My response:


The invocation of blessings from above is as old as the nation’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence. So if Democrats want to take exception to Cardinal Dolan’s appearance at the GOP convention, they’ll do so at their peril.


Some of course will use this appearance as a way to try to keep alive the alleged Republican “war on women.” But that charge is wearing thin. And it too is fraught with peril for Democrats, because the dozens of suits that have been brought against Obamacare’s contraceptive and abortifacient mandate are really about religious liberty, not about preventing access to contraception. So if anything, the cardinal’s appearance will shift the focus back to the compulsion that runs through Obamacare, the unpopularity of which is why Obama so seldom mentions it.