To hear liberals tell it, George W. Bush doesn't have a prayer of succeeding. What with the war in Iraq, soaring gasoline prices, and the high cost of medical care, the President's critics dismiss him on good days as ineffectual on bad days as a dunce.

Yet, the President, with his cockeyed optimism and can-do American spirit, seems to believe he can and will succeed. And he believes that much of the credit can be attributed to prayer.

You see, this is a praying President. Maybe that's why he catches so much flack from the media elite, who never met a praying man that they liked. This is a Commander-in-Chief who believes strongly in the power of prayer to give wisdom, counsel, and fortitude to a leader. He believes that prayer not only moves mountains, but changes hearts.

And he believes that the power of the Almighty is stronger than the power of the chairman of the Democratic Party.

At a White House celebration of the National Day of Prayer, Bush said, "America is a nation of prayer. It's impossible to tell the story of our nation without telling the story of people who pray. At decisive moments in our history and in quiet times around family tables, we are a people humbled and strengthened and blessed by prayer. ?

In fact, this President was bold enough to say that prayer is the greatest gift a citizen can offer him. Not a vote. Not a contribution to the Republican Party. Prayer.

"In my travels across the great land, a comment that I hear often from our fellow citizens is, 'Mr. President, I pray for you and your family.' It's amazing how many times a total stranger walks up and says that to me. You'd think they'd say, 'How about the bridge?' Or, 'How about filling the potholes?' No, they say, 'I've come to tell you I pray for you, Mr. President.' ?

Yet, this is not a President who is commanding people to pray ?as some on the left would have you believe.

"We are a people united by our love for freedom, even when we differ in our personal beliefs. In America, we are free to profess any faith we choose, or no faith at all. ?

Unfortunately, for many of us, the National Day of Prayer is a national day of regret. This is because we are not really free to pray at times in the land of the free. For instance, our children are banned from offering an earnest prayer at school ?where prayer is often needed the most.

A number of liberals would like to shut down churches where pastors are bold enough to dare speak against modern-day ills such as abortion, the break-up of the family, and pornography. They claim such clergymen are venturing into the religious no-man's land of politics.

Retailers routinely secularize religious holidays, refusing to acknowledge God at all. This is curious, given the fact that national public opinion polls actually show that most people do believe in Him.

This was a nation founded on deeply-held religious principles of right and wrong. Our laws are based on the Judeo-Christian tradition of morality. Our founding fathers did, in fact, have more than a casual acquaintance with the Bible.

Eliminating God from the public sphere is a short-sighted strategy. You may be able to keep peace with atheists in the short-term that way but, over the long haul, all it does is further divide our nation.

Simply put, we need more than a national day of prayer. We need 365 days of national prayer.

Copyright 2006 by Nathan Tabor