Although he initially supported Republican Mitt Romney, Kmiec "caused a stir" when he endorsed Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election in a piece on "Slate". As he explained in an interview with the "Chicago Tribune", "One of the things I kept discovering...was that Obama was sounding more Catholic than most Catholics I know." The issues that drew Kmiec's attention were wages, health care, and the cost of the Iraq War. To those fellow Catholics and pro-life advocates who were surprised at his position, he argued that Obama's desire to "alleviate social conditions that correlate with abortion", such as poverty, was convincing. In the endorsement itself, Kmiec explained his disagreements with Obama, especially over the issue of abortion, but indicated that it was time to find common ground on this and other topics. Kmiec opened his piece by praising Obama's "integrity, intelligence, and genuine good will".