A defining moment for "the religious left"

Marc Ambinder, an editor of the Atlantic Monthly, has some questions for the "religious left" in the wake of the presidential candidates' faith/values forum on CNN:

What is the religious left, really? Is it a movement? Is it a demographic cleavage that has no political significance? Is it organized? Does it have a core? What are its priorities? How does it reconcile church with state? Does it have aspirations to attain client status along with other Democratic interest groups?

That Sojournors founder Rev. Jim Wallis is influential is not in dispute. The forum was proof enough of that. That the Democratic candidates are attentive to religion and values is evident from how often the frontrunners talk about it. But there was no real clarity to last night's forum. Wallis told the audience that he wanted the forum to focus on poverty -- its motto was "Vote Out Poverty," he said -- but only two of the roughly 20 questions touched on the issue.

David Kuo says the night belonged to Senator Clinton, who skillfully deployed evangelical "code words" in her comments.  Daniel Pulliam at the Get Religion blog concludes:

The narrative for this story going into next year’s elections has two paths. One involves members of the pew vote moving away from the policies that are aligned with the current administration for various reasons, whether it be the war in Iraq or immigration policy or economic policy. The second storyline, which will be harder to track due to the heavy emphasis on the first but potentially more longlasting and significant, is whether or not there is a genuine formation of a voting block known as the religious left.