Amy Sullivan on Dems: Finding their Faith

Typically great read by Amy Sullivan, author of the soon-to-be-released "The Party Faithful." The book is out Tuesday and if you're lucky enough there might be a stop along the tour for you to catch.

In the meantime, this clip from the Time article struck me as too dang funny:

When John Edwards joined the ticket as the vice-presidential nominee in the summer, the campaign could have used the North Carolina Methodist much in the same way that Al Gore's campaign dispatched Joseph Lieberman to engage religious voters in 2000. Edwards carried with him a leather-bound copy of The Purpose-Driven Life, a popular devotional book by the Evangelical author and megachurch pastor Rick Warren. Edwards' copy was worn from daily reading, a discipline he shared with tens of millions of other Americans who owned the book.

But voters never learned about the vice-presidential candidate's religious reading habits. While GOP strategists trumpeted the fact that Bush started each morning with a reading from a book of essays trendy in Evangelical circles, Democrats were largely oblivious to the existence of Evangelical culture. At one point during the summer of 2004, Terry McAuliffe was actually at the same event as Warren, and the two were introduced. With a good-natured smile but a blank stare, McAuliffe stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Rick!" the Democratic National Committee chairman said. "And what do you do?"