ROME — President Barack Obama was once the biggest superstar on the international stage. On Thursday, he heads to the Vatican to benefit from the popularity of his replacement: Pope Francis.
The visit is a rare chance for Obama to associate himself with a world leader whose cool factor far outweighs his own, and it comes at a critical time in his presidency. The White House is still recovering from what aides call a “lost year,” and the president’s job approval ratings at home are dipping to new lows.
Obama will use the closely watched meeting to show how aligned he is with the pope on income inequality, poverty and immigration — issues important to both the White House and Democrats as they try to paint Republicans as insensitive to the needs of Americans before the upcoming midterms.
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“He needs the Francis bump,” said Chad Pecknold, a theology professor at The Catholic University of America.
Francis has a 76 percent approval rating among Americans, according to a Gallup poll published Wednesday. Obama’s approval rating in the daily Gallup tracking poll was 42 percent.
But even in Vatican City, Obama may not be able to escape the issue that’s dogged his presidency: Obamacare.
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The contraceptive mandate has strained his relationship back home with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and it came up at a January meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Vatican counterpart, Archbishop Pietro Parolin. If Francis presses Obama on the mandate, the contraceptive controversy could distract from the White House’s aim to show common cause with the pope on issues that Obama still hopes to advance in his second term.
A White House official said Wednesday the contraceptive mandate won’t be raised by Obama, but he’s happy to discuss anything that the pope brings up.
On income inequality in particular, Obama seems to see Francis as a kindred spirit — and important validator. Launching his renewed income inequality push in December, Obama reminded people that the concerns he had were not unique to America but had been addressed by the pope “at eloquent length,” quoting Francis’s frustration that stock market dips were news but homeless people dying of exposure were not.
White House aides — starting at the top with chief of staff Denis McDonough, who is an observant Catholic — speak excitedly about that connection to the pope. And that’s the sense among their outside allies as well. Francis is a huge help in talking about income inequality, they feel, both because he elevates the issue and depoliticizes it, putting the Democrats onto higher moral ground.
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It’s not just income inequality. Speaking to the Human Rights Campaign gala in Los Angeles over the weekend, Vice President Joe Biden — a Catholic, who was the administration’s official representative to Francis’s installation last year — invoked the pope to explain fighting for gay rights around the world.
“To paraphrase Pope Francis of all things, but think about this, think about what he said,” Biden said. “To paraphrase him, ‘Who are we to judge?’ Who are they to judge you and me?”
Thursday’s tightly choreographed visit includes a meeting between Francis and Obama for which a small contingent of media will be on hand, but only for their introduction. Their talks then go behind closed doors, in what Obama’s advisers said will be a personal highlight for the president during his overseas trip.
“He has long looked forward to meeting Pope Francis,” said Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser. “He has very much admired the leadership he has provided in his first year as pope, his commitment to address issues like income inequality and his leadership of the church more broadly. So that will be an important time for the president to have some personal interaction with the pope and to hear about the very ambitious agenda that he has launched in his first year.”
The trip is Obama’s second to the Vatican since entering the White House. He sat down with Pope Benedict XVI for 30 minutes between an economic summit and trip to Ghana in 2009.
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