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Brad's Gramma's point lets me kill two birds with one stone. First, on the title of my article: writers most often don't choose their own titles, and I'm often annoyed by the ones the Village Voice puts on my articles.

Second--and anyone who joins a discussion with me on Free Republic should take note of this because I make the point again and again and again--I am one of the many, many people on the left who had contempt for Bill Clinton (for various reasons, most different from yours).

I can take care of most of the other critiques by saying this: I have an enormous respect for religion, though I am not myself religious. It frustrates me when religion is used for an excuse for existential certainty, instead of a place for a trembling sense of our inadequacy before God, our awareness that His ways are mysterious and unkownable--using religion as an excuse to be arrogant, basically.

On the matter of the War on Terrorism--not on issues like who to hire as treasury secretary--Bush has consistently refused to admit a single mistake. If you think the course of American foreign policy in the past year has been admirable, you are entitled to that opinion. But the people who told me Bush is implacable on the subject were Republican heavies like Martin Anderson (who spent two years working with Bush prior to the election) and Lyn Nofziger.

And if you read the live thread on his press conference, you will see that the preponderance of participants found Bush's most honorable quality his refusal to admit mistakes in the war on terrorism.

And many, many on that thread chalked up that quality to his faith.

Where do I say that to pray is a crime?