Stumping for God's Endorsement - Limited Holiday Wishes

As I wrote several months ago in a post on the campaigns' recognition of Rosh Hashanah, I was stunned that only three of the then sixteen candidates made any reference to the Jewish high holiday and none at all to Ramadan. Well, the acknowledgment of Hanukkah was even worse.

Out of the now fourteen candidates for President of the United States, only one sent an email wishing their Jewish supporters a happy holiday. I would love to hold a contest to see if anyone picked this as the first choice . . ..it was Mitt Romney:

As of this writing - Christmas Day - there was not a peep about Kwanzaa, which runs from December 26th to January 1st. Surprisingly not all of the candidates chose to wish us a Merry Christmas either; the number is far higher than for Hanukkah - ten out of fourteen - but not inclusive of all. Those who did not send a personal or family greeting were Chris Dodd, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee. I must admit that Rudy and Huckabee were somewhat of a shock; I expected elaborate messages from both.

The three standouts in the messages that were sent were Fred Thompson, Mike Gravel and Hillary Clinton. Fred's is all about how you can help him have a happy holiday by donating at various levels:

Mike Gravel's also asked for money directly while extolling the virtues of the season:

Hillary's was notable because the message came only from her, no Bill or Chelsea to be found:

The rest of the messages were what one would expect: humbling, thankful and/or hopeful.

John McCain shares a story from his P.O.W. days, which he says helped sustain him:

The Obama email was from Michelle; however, it contains a link to the family message so I am counting it as a family card:

Bill Richardson's message does contain a link to the donation page of the site, but this is not the blatant - perhaps tacky ? - format of the Thompson card:

Kucinich sent a greeting that, oddly, says it is for everyone regardless of religious affiliation but it came on Christmas Eve:

Biden, Edwards, and Romney all sent simple greetings:

It would seem that there has been an actual decline in the attention paid to the major religions other than Christianity by the candidates. In light of the discussions taking place around this primary campaign one would expect to see the opposite; more diverse and inclusive communication.