Business as Usual in American Politics

Here's a good opinion piece about Mike Huckabee's failure to act according to his professed beliefs and the role of religion in this election. It's well worth a full read, but here are a couple of choice quotes.

. . . when ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked the former Arkansas governor, suddenly and ominously the front-runner in Iowa's GOP contest, whether Mitt Romney is a Christian . . . he provided the perfect opportunity for Huckabee to make some ringing statement in support of religious tolerance. . . . In other words, Huckabee might have preached. Instead, he said Romney had to answer for himself the question of whether he's a Christian.

. . .

It is absurd that Romney feels compelled to deliver a speech defending his beliefs and that Huckabee does not have to explain how, in this day and age, he does not believe in evolution. But it is singularly appropriate that Romney's speech be delivered at the Bush library. For it is the 41st president's underachieving son who put such emphasis on religious belief -- and has shown us all, with his appalling record, that faith is no substitute for thought. A mind honed on the whetstone of doubt might have kept us out of Iraq.

A couple of weeks ago, McCain was asked by a woman what the Republicans ought to do to "beat the bitch", a reference to Hillary Clinton. McCain didn't correct the questioner, suggesting that referring to a Presidential candidate as a bitch was inappropriate and misogynistic. He didn't elevate the tone of the campaign by making a statement that Senator Clinton was owed some respect. He uncomfortably laughed it off.

Such is the current state of politics in America.