Would Kerry buy poor people guns?

 The Second Amendment guarantees "the right of the people to keep and bear arms." Thus strict application of the Kerry Doctrine -- taxpayers must subsidize poor people in doing "whatever the constitution affords them if they can't afford it otherwise"  -- would mean the government must buy poor people guns.

 You won't find that plank in Kerry's platform.

 In the 2003 case of Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court discovered a "right" to same-sex sodomy. There's no need to analyze here exactly how the Kerry Doctrine would apply to this "right," but it is reasonable to assume even Kerry would not apply it.

 So why did Kerry say taxpayers must pay for abortions, and why did he incoherently preface his answer to Ms. Degenhart by revealing he had once served as an altar boy and by suggesting that the belief of Ms. Degenhart's hypothetical taxpayer  -- that "abortion is murder" -- was "an article of faith for me"?

 The answer is not in logic or good policy, but in opportunism and (from Kerry's perspective) ominous polls. He is stuck between the abortion lobby and the Catholic vote. He is the captive of the former and needs to win the latter.

 Kerry has always toed his party's pro-abortion line. But this may now have negative electoral consequences. In 2000, says the Associated Press, Gore and Bush split the Catholic vote. Kerry is the first Catholic nominated for president since John F. Kennedy. But two recent surveys show him trailing Bush badly among Catholic voters. A Barna Group poll released Sept. 27 put Bush over Kerry 53 percent to 36 percent among likely Catholic voters. A Pew Research Center poll completed Oct. 3 (after the first debate) put Bush over Kerry 49 percent to 33 percent among white Catholics.

 In 2000, Al Gore won New Mexico (36.9 percent Catholic population) and Wisconsin (31.6 percent Catholic). Polls show Bush leading both. In two other heavily Catholic states that Gore won -- New Jersey (40.4 percent Catholic) and Pennsylvania (31.0 percent Catholic) -- Bush remains surprisingly competitive.

 Is abortion driving a wedge through the blue states and a key swing vote toward Bush? Kerry's incoherent response to Sarah Degenhart means at least one old altar boy believes it is.