From Vermont-Asked in a 1999 Republican debate in Iowa who his favorite political philosopher was, then-candidate George W. Bush said that it was Jesus.
"And like a lot of people I kind of scratched my head at that," said religion scholar Randall Balmer. "I don't fault Governor Bush for that answer. It's a legitimate answer. What are you going to say to a question like that? ‘Machiavelli' is probably not going to win you a lot of votes. So I'm not criticizing the answer."
However, this answer got him thinking about "how 40 years earlier the Democratic nominee for president, John Kennedy of Massachusetts, had to address the so-called religion issue in the 1960 presidential campaign.
"So I decided there's got to be a story of this narrative arc between John F. Kennedy in 1960 addressing the whole issue of his faith and presidential politics and George W. Bush on the eve of the Iowa precinct caucuses saying that Jesus was his favorite political philosopher. So I began to try to delve into that story a little bit."
Balmer is chairman of the religion department at Dartmouth College, an Episcopal priest, and the author of more than a dozen books. The book that grew out of the comment by the younger George Bush was "
God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush," published in 2008.
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http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_23645117/scholar-speaks-lsquo-god-white-house-rsquo
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