181 Howard Dean and his good friend, God

Don't you just wish Howard Dean would forget trying to sound religious? I'm embarrassed for him, and I don't even like him!

William Safire reported the other day that Dean was trying to make a point about how he reads the Bible and he had the story of Job in the New Testament and said it had a bad ending which probably wasn't the original. Then Christopher Buckley in an article "In God he trusts," said he Googled "Dean + God" and got 49,201 hits on the internet--mostly Dean taking His name in vain--goddamnit, God knows, and goddamn.

Then he said something about the hallmark of Christianity being how you treat your fellow man (good works). Nonsense. The moral and ethical teachings of Christ were all from Judiaism. The hallmark of Christianity is the person and work of Jesus Christ.

No wonder he left his church over a bikepath. He doesn't know enough about Christianity to chose a better reason. He should go back to winning the Bible Belt with talking about Confederate flags--he couldn't do worse.

Update: In the Jan. 9 Wall Street Journal, Geoffrey Norman has an article "God and Green Mountains." He points out that discussing one's faith in Vermont, Dean's home state, would be vulgar. But when going after the bubba vote, saying that Jesus is your inspiration just won't cut it. Football players and NASCAR drivers are an inspiration; Jesus is the Redeemer.