Tracy Flick: Dear Lord Jesus, I do not often speak with you and ask for things, but now, I really must insist that you help me win the election tomorrow because I deserve it and Barack Obama ( “A legend in his own mind”) doesn’t, as you well know. I realize that it was your divine hand that disqualified Samantha Power and now I’m asking that you go that one last mile and make sure to put me in office where I belong so that I may carry out your will on earth as it is in heaven. Amen…...

Q: Has that changed now?

Senator Clinton: I think it’s changing. There was an assumption in the political press and beyond that skepticism about faith was probably the order of the day, which I totally get. As I said at CNN, I’ve always been skeptical of people who are wearing their faith on their sleeves. I think that it’s a good kind of skepticism to have, but we went too far the other way where it was somehow illegitimate to express your faith in the public square. So, many of us, and you know, Burns has been part of this and others of us in our own ways, we’ve been trying to search for the common ground where we can have these discussions without falling into the trap that is too easily tempting, that we are somehow judging based on our personal experience instead of trying to offer a perspective to move forward together….

Now here is a ‘movie’ that is not simply about an ambitious candidate, but also about an imperfect prospective vice-president, a lockstep administration (including the house speaker), and a Democrats party that is mostly just marking time until it can go out into the world and occupy valuable space…..

Q: The thing that we started talking about in the beginning was how Republicans seem to have the corner store on faith for a long time. It seemed like when you gave that politics and meaning speech back in the day that you got a hard time for it. Is it something that you resented that Democrats don’t have credibility when they talk about their faith?

Senator Clinton: I was bewildered by it, that it was somehow illegitimate to talk about faith as a Democrat. I found that just so bizarre that we were being, I think, written out of the whole faith experience. So much of the faith journey in this country are people who have put their faith into action on behalf of others – people who fought for abolition, people who fought for women’s suffrage, people who stood up on behalf of the concepts of justice and so much more. So, I was surprised…. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/us/politics/07clinton-text.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin