An
op-ed by Cathy Young in the Boston Globe discusses the Foer & Newsweek criticisms of Dean's secularism and his (manifestly awkward) response.
Whatever points Dean may have scored with his God talk, he has probably lost by looking opportunistic and insincere. The fault, however, lies not only with him but with a political climate in which a politician who is not very devout is advised to fake it.
To me, this was one of the big shifts Dean made as Iowa approached. I was disappointed to see it as a supporter--I had been pleased to have an unashamedly secular candidate doing so well. Amid some good questions about whether pundits' assumptions that presidents must be religious end up amounting to a religious test for office, Young suggests that Americans might actually prefer sincere secularism to manufactured belief.
What do you think?