Epistles

A roundup of (some) Christmas holiday messages from presidential candidates.

• Rudy Guiliani is chatting with Santa.

• John Edwards refers to faith, has Christmas lighting in the background but does not go the whole nine yards.

• Ron Paul is apolitical and affable but has a family/Christmas season theme. (Digression: “I want the government out of my uterus, okay !”)

• Mike Hukkabee’s explicit reference to Christ.

• Obama has his wife starting the talking, his daughters chime in, does not mention Christmas and has no campaign positions in there either.

• Hillary subtle reference to holiday season as she gives away goodies (“Whose money is it anyway!” )

• McCain plays up his Vietnam times and a cross drawn on the sand.

When you mention “Christmas”, you are signaling. When you don’t, you are avoiding alienation and signaling to a different constituency. Just wonder how many “holiday seasons” would India have if all the (mostly religious) festival names were sanitized to just “holidays” in order to be more inclusive ? Truly, there are more tangible ways to separate church from the state, eh !