Pope Reacts

Stung by recent economic setbacks, Pope Benedict XVI
announced plans for a six-day U.S. visit supposedly
to inspire, to affirm and to teach. Astute Democratic
insiders say that this isn't the first pope to cling to religion
when economic times got tough. "You should have seen
pope John Paul during the stock market crash in 1987,"
said a spokesman for Barack Obama, "It was God-this,
God-that, the Bible says this, all day long. I tell you, he was
nonstop Catholic. So we expected this pope to do the same."