All my life Americans have been accustomed to thinking of theirs as 'the richest freest' country in the world. By most measurements it was long a contender for that honor and - among the larger countries if equal weight were given to wealth and indices of freedom - probably did deserve to be so described.
It's funny that there was so much disturbance about having a Catholic in the White House with Kennedy and when we finally get a religion in the White House that's causing a lot of conflicts and concerns and disturbances for a lot of people it's in the Bush Administration.