IS BUSH PRETENDING HE MIGHT CONVERT TO CATHOLICISM JUST TO HELP McCAIN?

From Britain's Telegraph:

George W Bush and Pope Benedict XVI have held an intimate meeting in Rome as rumours mounted in Italy that the president may follow in Tony Blair's footsteps and convert to Catholicism....

Several Italian newspapers cited Vatican sources suggesting that Mr Bush may be prepared to convert. One source told Il Foglio, an authoritative newspaper, that "Anything is possible, especially for a born-again Christian such as Bush."...

A source close to the Vatican said that Mr Bush was the most "Catholic-minded" president since John F Kennedy, who famously played down his Catholicism....

You'll recall a Washington Post op-ed from April in which it was argued that Bush "could well be the nation's first Catholic president" ("where Kennedy sought to divorce his religion from his office, Bush has welcomed Roman Catholic doctrine and teachings into the White House and based many important domestic policy decisions on them"). Prior to that, Rick Santorum called Bush "the first Catholic president" back in 2006.

Karl Rove, who's clearly helping John McCain, has long believed that Republicans can peel off Catholic voters from the Democrats, and some poll-readers have argued that the Catholic vote won it for Bush in '04. And McCain is certainly doing outreach to Catholic conservatives; I'll link you again to this story from Right Wing Watch:

Deal Hudson reports that John McCain "met privately" with Rev. Frank Pavone, the Priests for Life head most famous for calling Michael Schiavo a murderer, before a Catholic-outreach meeting in Philadelphia. McCain has been holding events with supporter Sen. Sam Brownback, whose brief presidential run attracted a lot of attention from social conservatives, and who promised to court the Religious Right activists such as Pavone on McCain's behalf....

Deal Hudson is Catholic. Sam Brownback is also Catholic and is McCain's Catholic liaison. Needless to say, Father Frank Pavone is Catholic. (And as I noted earlier today, Pavone also associates with anti-abortion extremists who publicly burn Korans.)

Have these guys concluded that, in some bizarre way, rumors of a Bush conversion, wafting in from across the Atlantic, might improve Catholics' opinion of Bush and the man who's yoked to him, John McCain? I can't rule that out.