Romney-Ryan and Religion

We'll have ample time to discuss here the subtantive implications of Governor Romney's selection of Congressman Ryan, but here are two interesting facts about today's announcement (and maybe there's something more profound here about the state of religion and politics today):

1. Paul Ryan is only the second Catholic on a Republican presidential ticket--the first was William Miller, the vice presidential nominee in 1964. (Sarah Palin was baptized a Catholic but left the Church with her parents as a child.)

2. This is the first major party presidential ticket in American history without a Mainline (or its derivations) Protestant on it. Nixon-Agnew in 1968 and 1972--a Quaker and a Greek Orthodox by birth--comes close (depending on how one characterizes Quakerism) but Agnew had converted to Episcopalianism by then.