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The question to ask now is whether or not he really believes. There's no way I can know if any of the candidates really believe or not. If you were running for president in this country, and you were atheist, would you lie and pretend to be all churchy?
I personally don't lie, but if by lying I could attain the power to help millions of people, I might. I certainly wouldn't blame someone else for doing so, unless of course they ended up hurting instead of helping.
If I had the power to torture somebody, there is no realistic benefit resulting from torturing somebody that would allow me to justify it to myself. Nor could I find any valid reason to forgive anyone who permits, orders, or commits acts of torture.
Just because I defend someone's right to do something, doesn't mean I respect them or approve of them. This is middle school school social studies class material we're dealing with here. "I don't agree with what you say, but I defend your right to say it." There is no hypocrisy in saying that religious people have a right to do their thing, while simultaneously not approving of religion.
His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.
"Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you."
"No problem, just let me in," says the man.
"Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity."
"Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven," says the senator.
"I'm sorry, but we have our rules."
And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.
Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people.
They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne.
Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.
Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises...
The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.
"Now it's time to visit heaven."
So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.
"Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity."
The senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: "Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell."
So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.
Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage.
He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above.
The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. "I don't understand," stammers the senator. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?"
The devil looks at him, smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning...... Today you voted."
Atheists are the least trusted minority in the United States. No one can run for president and have any chance of winning without either being crazy or lying about it. I have no choice but to either overlook the craziness or the lying, or else disenfranchise myself entirely. Many of our founding fathers were clearly atheists, claiming deism or some other faith simply to avoid trouble.
As such, I only support candidates who I either suspect are actually atheists, or who in the very least appear less crazy than anyone who actually believes in the literal truth of the christian bible.
Barrack Obama gets a 30% chance of being an atheist, based on everything he's said to date.
My vote for president barely matters because I live in New York. The office of the president has a lot less power than people think it does. Congressional and local elections are far more important to me than presidential ones. For president, I support whichever candidate will result in the most people calming the fuck down. I'm just so tired of this shit. Let's just go back to living our lives. I want every other conversation to be about happy video games an anime, not about upsetting worldly matters over which I have barely any influence.
Also, all it takes for America to go to shit is for smart people to do nothing.