Horrible News

Yahoo news reports: The personal faith of candidates has become a very public part of the 2008 presidential campaign. Seven years after George W. Bush won the presidency in part with a direct appeal to conservative religious voters — he cited Jesus Christ as his favorite philosopher during one debate — it seems all the leading presidential candidates are discussing their religious and moral beliefs, even when they'd rather not.

It is a damn shame that candidates feel like they have to publicly proclaim their religious beliefs in order to get elected. I wonder if it is true or if it is just an on-going myth? Now I don't mean that a candidate should necessarily declare his or her atheism (even though that would probably make me more interested in them). What I am thinking is that it probably wouldn't hurt a strong candidate to say "My religious beliefs are irrelevant to my ability to hold a public, secular office such as the presidency of the United States of America." And continued to repeat that as a mantra every time they were asked.

Oh, the jackals in the press would probably follow him/her every weekend to see whether they went to a church and what denomination it was. But even then, wouldn't it be a pleasure to hear that candidate just repeat "My religious beliefs are irrelevant to my ability to hold a public, secular office such as the presidency of the United States of America" ?