Clinton to Apologize to Cardinal Dolan and Catholics? Nah.

Cardinal Dolan requested an apology. He didn't get one.

There have been some awful things said about Catholics recently from a number of people in the Hillary Clinton campaign. You might have heard about them. But then again you might not have if you're getting your news from the mainstream media.

From those WikiLeaks released emails, we have John Podesta, now the Clinton campaign chair, admitting to working to undermine Catholic teaching by creating "Catholic" groups that obfuscate true Catholic teaching on abortion and marriage.

Clinton campaign Director of Communications Jennifer Palmieri said, “I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion.”

While those things were said by those with the campaign, Clinton herself said that deep seated Church teachings must be changed, such as the sacredness of life, so that effort would seem quite in line with her thinking. 

Shortly before the annual Al Smith fundraising dinner in which both candidates appeared, Cardinal Timothy Dolan reportedly said, "If it had been said about the Jewish community, if it had been said about the Islamic community, within 10 minutes there would have been an apology and a complete distancing from those remarks - hasn't happened yet."

I do have to wonder why if an apology was important enough to talk to the press about, why did Cardinal Dolan sit next to her in front of all the cameras at the dinner? Certainly, he must see that sitting with her undermines his own request for an apology. In fact, just today, Cardinal Dolan was on one of NBC's morning show and the subject of the requested apology was not raised.

But to be fair, why should Hillary Clinton apologize? According to recent polls, Catholics favor Clinton, despite her stances on abortion and religious freedom.

And there's another reason for Clinton to remain silent. If she were to say anything, it would become immediately newsworthy, making the emails newsworthy. Thus far, the media has found little newsworthy in the anti-Catholic emails.

But when right and wrong no longer matter, strategy is everything. And Hillary Clinton got what she wanted from Cardinal Dolan without having to apologize. She got the video and pictures of them sitting together, smiling and talking. Mission accomplished.

In the end, I wonder what does a candidate have to do to warrant not being invited to the Al Smith dinner?