I watched about half of it. I caught the latter part of Senator Clinton's appearance, and the beginning part of Senator Obama's. From what I saw, they both seemed to do fine. (If I missed some career-ending gaffe from either of them, I hope someone will fill me in.)

I'm not a religious person. At least not anymore. (I was a very devout Christian at one time.) But I understand the need for candidates to talk about their faith. That's cool. The Republicans have been clobbering us for years as somehow anti-Christian, and I'm glad to see that our candidates aren't going to let them get away with it. Obviously, religion is an important part of many Americans' lives, and they understandably want to know that their president doesn't look down on religious people. So, I have no problem with candidates talking about their faith, and I give both Democratic candidates credit for doing it.

I think what irks me is to see CNN (or any media outlet) hosting an event specifically to discuss religion. I can't shake the feeling that this event served a political purpose for CNN as well as for the candidates. Ever since 2004, I get the sense that they've been actively trying to play up their religious bona-fides, and it seems somewhat desperate and transparent. I expect my politicians to pander. But it's not really something I look for in a cable news network.

Oh, and while I'm on the subject, I'm irked by the name they chose for the event. "The Compassion Forum"? No. That's not correct. Calling it "the compassion forum" implies that religion and compassion are synonymous, which they are not. Obviously, they do go hand-in-hand sometimes, as both of our Democratic Candidates showed tonight. But after 8 years of Bush I'm sure I don't have to convince anyone here that sometimes religion and compassion do not go together. In fact, quite often compassion occurs without any religion or religious motivation. They should have called it the "Faith and Politics Forum" or something like that.