"The problem most of us on the left have with this isn't the fact that we get blamed for everything - that, we're used to. It's the fact that there seems to a single straight path from discovery of the event to judgment and execution at the hands of the brave conservative mob without any effort at discovery whatsoever. Well, I do take that back - often, there's a massive marshalling of evidence through interlinking that a lot of people think the same things they do, but shared opinion does not constitute the creation of fact."

Personally I don't think that Bush himself has to make all that much effort to appear religious. Its the word from the pulpit, that Bush is a man of God, that is driving evangelicals to put their faith in Him (I mean Bush, not God). The ownership language is particularly interesting. Religious people in this country refer to Bush as "our president", meaning they feel that Bush is enacting their agenda and working for them. Bush himself only has to pepper his speeches with vague allusions to reinforce this perception.

Whether Bush himself is following the teachings of Jesus is as irrelavent, as is asking whether the churches that call themselves Christian are doing so either. Right wing Christianity is a identity movement. Bush is practing crass identity politics. He is a annointed head of the Republican party, and thus, by default, a man of god.