With the choice of Paul D. Ryan to be the Republican vice- presidential nominee, not one person in a group of top political jobs - the presidential and vice-presidential nominees of both parties, the Supreme Court justices, the speaker of the House or the Senate majority leader - is a white Protestant. That group instead comprises nine Catholics (six justices, Mr. Ryan, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Speaker John A. Boehner), three Jews (on the court), two Mormons (Mitt Romney and Senator Harry Reid) and one African-American Protestant (President Obama). For much of American history, white Protestants dominated the top rungs of American government.
