There's an important article in the Politico titled, "Obama invokes Jesus more than Bush." President Barack Obama, says the article, has mentioned Jesus Christ "in a number of high-profile public speeches," more so than did President George W. Bush, and in much less "innocuous contexts."

Obama has done so in order to promote certain policies, especially his economic policies, and "to connect with a broader base of supporters." He does this via various "targeted messages." Most remarkable, the article considers whether Obama is using the bully pulpit to pursue "an even larger goal" of resurrecting the Christian left, of appealing to disillusioned conservative evangelicals, and to attract "swing Protestants" and "swing Catholics."

In other words, Obama is doing the things, faith-wise, that Bush was angrily accused of doing.

That's not surprising. Obama will pursue these goals with the secular-liberal media's acquiescence, silent approval and encouragement, and warmest appreciation. To cover for this political recruitment by their president, liberals in the press will ignore the activity, and certainly not expose it in their news coverage.

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Among the claims in the Politico piece, I was struck by the one that's most verifiable: the frequency of the mentions of Jesus. Within about a year, we will be able to tabulate these through the Presidential Documents as they become available on-line.

I did those tabulations for George W. Bush compared to Bill Clinton. I ran the data because I sensed that Bush's references to God-which sent liberal journalists into fits of irrational rage-were less frequent and considerably more benign than anything I heard from Bill Clinton, not to mention a long line of Democratic presidents and politicians. Revisiting those findings here is worthwhile, since they tell us much about how Democratic presidents use faith and, far more important, how the liberal media manipulates public perception.

I searched The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, which are the exhaustive, official collection of every public presidential statement. I compared the mentions of "Jesus," or "Jesus Christ," or "Christ" by Bush and Clinton. (Hereafter referred to as "Christ.") Clinton, of course, won handily.

Most telling, however, was the how and when. Bush's biggest year was 2001, when he mentioned Christ in seven statements, typically relating to September 11 memorial services. In 2002, Bush cited Christ five times. Most interesting, in all of 2003, the Presidential Documents display only two statements in which Bush mentioned Christ: Easter and Christmas messages. This downward trend continued, suggesting that the hostile press reaction to Bush's mentions of Christ pressured him into silence.

Such pressure, naturally, was never placed on Bush's Democratic predecessor. President Bill Clinton's biggest year for Christ remarks was 1996-the year of his reelection campaign-when he spoke of Christ in nine separate statements. For a single year, Bush never outdid Clinton in references to Christ. Continued...