Palin And The Apocalypse

By Steve Hynd

The scariest domestic political story of the day is this one: "Matters of faith, politics on table as Palin visits Graham"

"He's followed her career and likes her strong stand on faith," said son Franklin Graham, who was present for the 2 1/2-hour get-together. "Daddy feels God was using her to wake America up."

The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate told Billy Graham about how she came to faith in God as a girl in Bible camp.

She quizzed him on the presidents he's known and wanted his take on what the Bible says about Israel, Iran and Iraq, Franklin Graham reported.

As Spencer Ackerman notes, Palin's visit to the fundie Graham household explains something she said recently:

Last week, Sarah Palin made a strange comment defending Israeli settlement construction by warning that “more and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead.” Since worldwide Jewry is unaware of such an imminent threat that would prompt mass immigration to Israel — and certainly not immigration specific to the West Bank – that sounded like some kind of dogwhistle to Christian Zionists, a cohort that promotes unconditional American support to Israel in order to bring about the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ to earth. Not, in other words, something particularly high on the Jewish or Israeli agendas, but Christian Zionists represent a pretty sizable bloc within the Republican coalition and could, say, help someone win a presidential nomination were someone so inclined.

Given her own very personal association with a Kenyan minister who hounded a woman for witchcraft, it seems unlikely to me that Palin is simply making a cynical play for the loonie fringe who look forward to the Apocalypse. She honestly seems to belive this stuff. And yet she's considered a frontrunner for the GOP nomination. That seems to me to prove that the GOP's former "big tent" has been replaced by a gated community...or an asylum.

Comments

[o]

when Obama is going to visit Rev. Jeremiah Wright?

[Steve Hynd]

Wrong place for that comment, o. If you're not just a drive-by commenter, read other posts - we're not exactly Obama's biggest liberal fans.

Regards, Steve