What I find most curious about this issue is the apparent gap between the supposed statement by Bush and the reporting of it. Although Bush allegedly made the "atheists" remark in August 1987, the first generally cited print reference to it is the Fall 1988 issue of Free Inquiry magazine. Why the delay? Even if, for whatever reason, the mainstream media didn't bother with the story, Rob Sherman was the publisher of American Atheist magazine -- why didn't he put this story in the very next issue? Seems to me that a sitting Vice-President (and a major presidential candidate to boot) saying he didn't think atheists should be considered citizens or patriots would be big news in atheism circles, even if the rest of the world didn't care.