Evidently, Gov. Rick Perry thinks his August prayer rally, where the podium was packed with pastors from the far right evangelical extreme, didn't stamp "CHRISTIAN" on the GOP candidate's forehead in bold enough letters.

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Now, as Catalina Camia blogs at On Politics, sinking-in-the-polls Perry has a new video out questioning President Obama's religiosity. In it, Perry gets his own constitutional facts wrong. He says, "...our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school."

Children can and do pray in school and speak of Christmas as freely as they wish. What's unconstitutional is adults or school personnel imposing their religion -- prayer or Christmas or Passover or Ramadan or any other holy day -- on public school children.

Perry also hints broadly that he's the loud and proud Christian compared to Obama, whose frequent professions of Christianity have yet to convince many Americans.

Wednesday afternoon Interfaith Alliance President Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy took aim at Perry's Iowa ad, calling it "a new low... in the manipulation of religion for partisan political advantage." Instead of a phony "war on religion" claimed by Perry, Gaddy sees the governor using religion as a weapon of campaign war.

Gaddy points out,

...This is a race for commander-in-chief, not pastor-in-chief. His divisive and misleading message about faith has no place in a U.S Presidential campaign. ... As a fellow Christian, I want Gov. Perry to understand that he is woefully mistaken when he implies that it is his faith, rather than his policy views, that qualify him for office.

Now, all that said, Obama is most certainly aware that God-talk is part of campaign speech, now more than ever. Indeed, this fall, he appeared to be ramping up the religion references in his speeches.

John Green, director of the University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, told me then while God mentions won't move the dial for conservative evangelicals, they could be just right for ambivalent voters who "don't want a hard-edged faith shaping national politics."

That was just after Perry gave his personal Christian conversion testimony as part of a foreign policy speech at Jerry-Falwell-founded Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Va.

Perry's ad is also a subtle slap at the Mormons in the race for the GOP nomination, particularly Mitt Romney. Millions of American evangelicals are suspicious that Mormonism is not part of Christianity because of it's distinctive views on the trinity.

DO YOU THINK ... The GOP race -- or the 2012 election -- should be fought over Christian vs. Christian? Do you check a faith meter before you vote?