Who's More Catholic: President Obama or Pope Benedict XVI?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Papal President?

Newsweek guest columnist Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is suggesting President Obama is more Catholic than the pope.

In a column on Newsweek's Web site, the former Maryland lieutenant governor and member of the Kennedy clan says Obama's agenda reflects the views of American Catholics "much more closely than those vocal bishops and pro-life activists."

Townsend continues that Catholics in the U.S. aren't bothered by disagreements between the White House and the Vatican over reproductive rights and homosexuality because "they know Obama's on their side... [his] agenda is closer to their views than even the pope's."

Playing Favorites?

Longtime White House correspondent Carl Cannon says the media didn't hold Joe Biden to the same standard as Sarah Palin in the 2008 election.

Cannon was a White House correspondent for National Journal for more than a decade. In his column on the Politics Daily Web site, he says the attention surrounding Palin was created by what he calls a busted journalism model and confesses the media "took sides, straight and simple" when it came to the vice presidential race.

Governor's Travels

And, according to the Washington Post and the Associated Press, as it now turns out South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford used state employees and U.S. embassy officials to set up a trade mission to Argentina in June of 2008, but made it clear he wanted to maintain a low-key schedule on the trip.

E-mails released by the South Carolina Commerce Department show Sanford — who recently admitted to an affair with an Argentine mistress — asked his staff to arrange for him to leave a scheduled hunting trip early and keep his evenings free in Buenos Aires.

Sanford now admits having a romance with the woman on that trip.

— FOX News Channel's Dominique Pastre contributed to this report.