Is Hillary Clinton getting Religion?

[Frodo]

i do not know how religiously devout she is in private, but i never had the impression that she cared about religion unless it suited certain political ends.  i hate politicians like this who aren't particularly religious (on either side of the political spectrum), yet try to pander to the gullible and convince them that they are just like them.  Jesus, Hillary would be much better off if she were just being herself and not trying to convince people that she's more religious than she really is -voters crave politicians who at least seem authentic:

God Is a Centrist Democrat
Hillary Clinton moves self, whole party into the religious middle

by Kristen Lombardi
March 2 - 8, 2005   

If it's true that the Democratic Party is about to get religion, then Hillary Clinton is first at the altar. Much has been made of Clinton's newly softened image—the way she tore down her old liberal icon and got spiritual over abortion, for instance. She told an Albany crowd on January 24 that abortion represents "a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women," and singled out "religious and moral values" as an antidote to teenage sex. Never mind the New York junior senator's continued advice that pro-choice activists find "common ground" with their anti-abortion counterparts. Pundits chalked up the putative presidential candidate's remarks to a post-election Democratic shift to the center. After all, the only way to win national office anymore is to move to the middle, and these days that means getting serious about God and guns.

And sure enough, there she was, getting cozy with Republican maverick John McCain on NBC's Meet the Press last week, as he said she'd make "a good president." She played commander in chief, going out of her way to disagree with the hard-left wing of her own party by insisting that the troops must stay in Iraq to keep the insurgents at bay.

Yet for all the notice of Clinton's centrist tone and morality-speak on the national stage, her New York constituents largely missed the senator's real debut as a God-fearing Middle American. It came in a January 19 speech in Boston that made headlines there, with Clinton appearing in a Globe photograph alongside the host, Reverend Eugene Rivers III, one of the state's most outspoken opponents of same-sex marriage.

Clinton had traveled there to attend a benefit for Rivers's youth-outreach program, known as the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation, which promotes faith-based solutions to gang violence and urban crime. At the event, attended by many of the city's prominent black ministers, the senator celebrated the foundation's street ministry to at-risk kids. But she also used the opportunity to demonstrate her commitment to a key issue in the culture wars, the role of faith in addressing social ills like poverty and hunger. Listen to her praise faith-based initiatives:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0509,lombardi1,61604,6.html

[Frodo]

Bush "Found' Jesus just in time to run for office.
Happens all the time.

perhaps, but if the Democratic Party really wants to bridge the gap on religious values with voters, then it must choose candidates who actually are religious, like Bob Casey of Pennsylvania for instance who is a strong economic populist to boot. 
while i admire Hillary Clinton for being a strong woman, she would be much more at home appealing to women nationwide, rather than trying to make herself something that she isn't.  does she seriously think any one is going to be fooled by her rather sudden just-in-time-for-the-elections religiosity?  if anything, it would prove more a liability than a benefit.  let's face it, the reality of the situation is that Democrats are more likely to be called for their lack of authenticity than Republicans -that's just the way the political landscape is of late.   shouldn't we be trying to adapt to these circumstances rather than being tone-deaf on pleas for authenticity from voters?