EVER since the mournful 1928 presidential-election showing of New York's Al Smith (87 electoral votes v. 444 for Herbert Hoover), the Democratic Party has generally accepted as political gospel this proposition: a Roman Catholic is a fatal liability on a national ticket and is therefore not to be considered.
But in the late preconvention season of 1956, two Catholics—Massachusetts Senator John Kennedy and New York Mayor Robert Wagner—rank high among Democratic vice-presidential possibilities. One reason: a confidential survey now in the hands of selected Democratic leaders, e.-g., Harriman Adviser Carmine De Sapio and Stevenson Campaign Manager James Finnegan (both Catholics). The...