Palin and "The 700 Club"

Palin has, for the most part, avoided the mainstream media since McCain chose her to be his vice presidential running mate. That avoidance was surely by command of the McCain campaign as they soon realized she was an airhead who could not speak in coherent sentences unless they gave her a script to follow. Even that didn't always work.

As everyone knows, Sarah Palin is a fundamentalist Christian, connected to the most extreme elements of that persuasion. It is natural, I suppose, that she would agree to be interviewed by David Broder, a reporter (and blogger) for the Christian Broadcasting Network, the brainchild of the rightwing nutcase, Pat Robertson.

This interview will be televised tomorrow on "The 700 Club," but Broder has posted excerpts on his blog. What follows is a summary of some of what Ms. Palin said.

1) Brody asked her if she was still "okay with the 'pal around with terrorist line" ... did she "want to rein that back a little?"

Palin: "No, I would say it again. I would say it again because again, it, it, according to the information we have, the association that he's had with Bill Ayers wasn't just one or two time (sic) sitting on a board together where. No, there's been quite a few associations and events and meetings and discussion and emails and calls and to not disavow that too, I think is troubling."

2) Brody asked her if she would support a constitutional marriage amendment.

Palin: "I am, in my own, state, I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I wish on a federal level that that's where we would go because I don't support gay marriage. I'm not going to be out there judging individuals, sitting in a seat of judgment telling what they can and can't do, should and should not do, but I certainly can express my own opinion here and take actions that I believe would be best for traditional marriage that, that instrument that it's the foundation of our society is that strong family and that's based on that traditional definition of marriage, so I do support that."

3) Brody asked her if she wanted to "clear up exactly" what she believes relative to her own faith, "The Pentecostal stuff, the gifts of the Holy Spirit ... because there have been some editorials and others taking shots at you regarding -- "

Palin: "Yeah, and I think the saddest part of that is that faith, not just my faith, faith and God in general has been mocked through this campaign, and that breaks my heart and that is unfair for others who share a faith in God and chose to worship our Lord in whatever private manner that they deem fit and my faith has always been pretty personal. I haven't really worn it on my sleeve. I haven't been out there preaching it. I've always been of the mind that you walk the walk. You just don't have to be talking the talk about your beliefs, so just wanting maybe my life to be able to reflect my faith. So it's always been pretty personal and that was kind of a surprise in the last couple of months that people would misconstrue and spin anything that has to do with my faith or anybody else's and turn it into something to be mocked. That's very sad. I don't think that there's anything that I can do about it, so you know, I won't. I won't whine or complain about it, but nobody is going to convince me that my foundation of faith is not good for me and for my family no matter the mocking, no matter what anybody says about it. I'm going to keep plugging away at this and I'm going to keep seeking God's guidance and His wisdom and His favor and His grace, for me, for my family, for this campaign, for our nation. Again no matter what anybody else says about it it's between me and God, and I am so thankful that he has strengthened me with this understanding and this belief that I can count on Him. I can reach out to Him asking for that strength, asking for the blessings that He so freely gives and I don't know how anybody would want to do this if they didn't have real strong faith in God that He's got it all under control."

4) Brody questioned her about her rallies and the nasty things people said about Obama and whether she felt responsible to stop such talk.

Palin: "Absolutely. But what we have heard through some mainstream media is that folks have hollered out some pretty atrocious and unacceptable things like 'kill him' or some, we have not heard that. If I ever were to hear that standing up there at the podium with the mic, I would call 'em out on that, and I would tell these people, no, that's unacceptable, let's rise above that please. We haven't heard that. What I heard though is even in the other camp though some negativity that has been injected in the campaign with the candidate himself, with Barack Obama telling his supporter to get out there and quote 'get in their face, argue with them.' That, you know, that's kind of inciting and a bit negative and John McCain and I will have nothing to do with that, but it is unacceptable if we were ever to hear the shout outs that are so negative that we have heard being reported, if I were to hear that I would say no, we don't stand for that."

5) Brody asked Palin to explain what she prays about "and what are some things that people can pray for you?

Palin: "Pray of course for about my family that my kids will not be adversely affected by some of the political shots of course that, that we've been taking the last couple of months. I pray for my son's safety over in Iraq fighting for us in a striker brigade in the US Army and for all of our troops and I pray too for in the grander, greater scheme of things also that God's hand of protection would be over our country and that we as individuals would be endowed with strength to do all that we can to protect our nation and protect our Constitutional rights and do those things that I believe will make our country better, greater, but it's going to take even more than that truly it will take God's hand of protection to be continually over our land and His wisdom, His grace, His favor I pray for that for our country. I pray for that for other nations also, so that other nations would be safe, would be healthy, that the people who live there - especially the children who are growing up in some of these nations that are certainly not as privileged as we are would know that there is hope, that there is opportunity if they seek that and if they seek God's guidance."

6) Brody also approached the issue of Barack Obama as a "strong Christian family man." He asked Palin if abortion and homosexuality are in contradiction to "biblical values."

Palin: "I think the most troubling issue that I know of that Barack Obama is completely the other side of John McCain and that I am on is, is the abortion issue because his abortion stance is so extreme. It's so, so far left that it's way out of the mainstream. I think he's in some sense succeeded in trying to package up, and pretty-up some of his policies to make them look mainstream even on abortion, but American voters have got to realize his opposition to parental consesnt, his opposition to a ban on partial birth abortion and most troubling is his opposition to the child born alive act, I think should be, and I say this, I mean, this is mild to say it is quite concerning. But to withhold medical intervention for a baby who is born alive as a result of a botched abortion and to allow that child to die without the medical intervention that child deserves I, it's appalling to me ..."

7) Brody asked Palin why she would not go on the 24/7 cable networks.

Palin: "Well sometimes it just doesn't do any good. I mean you set yourself up just to continually be mocked, you so sometimes that doesn't do any good ..." Palin goes on to say that she has been trying to get their message out to the people without its being "filtered" by the mainstream media which distorts and contorts their message.

8) Brody asked Palin about her baptism.

Palin: "Well, it was a neat thing to be able to do. I was baptized with my family, all my siblings, and we all got baptized together in Little Beaver Lake in Big Lake, Alaska by Pastor Riley. It was significant to me because I knew even at that time as a young kid, middle school aged, I knew that there was something bigger than I out there, and I would be smart to dedicate myself to something that was bigger than I was. Of course that's God, my Creator. And I knew that I wouldn't be able to handle all that was laid out in front of me in life if I did not have strong faith in my Creator, a mission towards trying to fulfill my own destiny and trying to make the world a bit better for others, so that the manifestation of that belief that I had, I was very aware of what I could do about it at the time, and at the time it was to take that that public step to be baptized and the principle behind that too is as you're raised up out of the waters it's like, 'hey world, this is my confession of faith that I'm going to try to lead and live my life according to my belief that God as my Creator has good plans for all of us, and we are to seek those plans and seek the destiny that he has for all of us.'"

8) Brody also asked Palin what she would say to Obama if she found herself alone with him.

Palin: I would talk to him specifically about some of the issues that he has taken on that I do not believe are best for America. When he supported withdrawing funding for our troops over there in Iraq and Afghanistan. I want to talk to him about that ... I'd ask him about the comment that he made to our troops over in Afghanistan are merely air raiding villages and killing civilians. That's not what our troops are doing over there. They're fighting the terrorists. They're protecting us. They're building schools for the children ... so I would speak to him about his record, his record, not getting into so much into values or principles that he would hold, but just calling him on his record and trying to find out why? Why have you done some of these things that I do not believe and I don't believe the vast majority of Americans can support."

++++

Now, if all of that doesn't convince you that Sarah Palin is an empty-headed, self-righteous, Christian fundamentalist moron, nothing will.

Several things are immediately obvious:

a) She cannot speak in sentences that make sense. She should return her college diploma and start all over again.

b) She is either ignorant or she is an out-and-out liar. For example, Obama has never been against saving babies born of botched abortions. And she has taken his Afghanistan quote out of context, changing the meaning to put Obama in a bad light. Furthermore, study after study have concluded that Obama's views on abortion are much closer to what "Americans believe" than the pap she hands out. She would know this if she read material other than that handed to her by her Rovian handlers. But, then again, I'm not sure she is smart enough to decipher truth from fiction.

c) It comes through loudly and clearly that she believes the United States to be a Christian nation, and that only through belief in her particular god can someone receive the wisdom and strength to govern.

d) Her comments with regard to the hateful things said at her rallies are simply lies. Both she and McCain have heard those comments - hell, they incited those comments by their vicious and untruthful rhetoric! As for her statement that Obama told his "supporter" to "get in their face, argue with them" -- well, first of all, that's not such a bad idea - it certainly isn't instigating violence - but I don't believe her. I would love to find out the source of that "information."

5) You will notice that the questions asked of Palin by Mr. Brody are, for the most part, softball questions, and lead directly into the same talking points she uses on the campaign trail. In that sense, Brody doesn't "interview" Palin so much as he gives her a forum for perpetrating the same nonsense she spews over the country daily. Why, for example, didn't he ask about her views on energy -- her self-described field of "expertise." Or, why didn't he ask about her vast foreign policy experience, about all the countries she has visited, about her relationships with world leaders? Why didn't he ask about how she would end the war in Iraq and what she thought the United States should do in Afghanistan now that it appears the Taliban are resurgent and will soon control most of the country again. Why didn't he ask about how to deal with a nuclear Pakistan and a nuclear India? Why didn't he ask her views about the budget deficit and how she thinks we should go about cleaning up the financial mess made by her Republican friends in Washington? Why didn't he ask about health care for all Americans -- does she even believe in that? Why didn't he ask her about public schools and whether she would favor vouchers whereby the government would give tax dollars to people to send their kids to parochial or other private schools? Why didn't he ask her views on faith-based programs in which the government doles out tax money to religious institutions to do social work. Why didn't he ask what she believes about fighting AIDS in Africa and whether American aid should be withheld from agencies that provide condoms or information about abortion? Why didn't he ask her how she would go about resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? Why didn't he ask her views on separation of church and state? Or torture? Or spying on Americans? Or immigration? Or global warming? Or about what to do with the country's decaying infrastructure? Does she believe in the constitutional right to habeas corpus? And does she want to "bomb, bomb, bomb" Iran?

You can add your own "Why didn't he ask..." here.

6) Sarah Palin appears to be a vacuous teenager in a woman's body who has never quite made the transition to adulthood. She proves once again, in this interview, that she is completely and totally unprepared and unqualified to hold the position of vice president.