Joe Biden apparently is not bothered at all by his lack of endorsements by religious leaders. As reported by the Des Moines Register, the Delaware Democrat opened his remarks at an annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Des Moines over the weekend by poking fun at Republicans for cozying up to leaders of the Christian right. This is from the Register’s report:

The Delaware senator opened his speech by expanding on a running joke about Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani, who was recently endorsed by evangelical Pat Robertson. Biden said last week that every sentence Giuliani says “has a verb and 9/11 in it.”
“I should start with an apology … I was wrong,” [Biden] said. “He called to tell me after Pat Robertson’s endorsement that there’s an amen in every sentence he says, too. It’s amazing how these Republicans get converted, isn’t it? Amazing. Rudy Giuliani and Pat Robertson. God bless you.”

While Biden’s comments drew a chuckle, as intended, from the party faithful attending the Democratic fundraiser, they seemed to buttress the old stereotype of Democrats as the party of the “God gap”—an image several of his Democratic rivals in this campaign have been working hard to change.

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