Palin's Apocalypse



The Real News Network

Does Sarah Palin believe in the Anti-Christ? Does she believe true Christians will be whisked up to heaven sometime in the near future? Does she expect Jesus to come back to earth in our lifetimes and battle the armies of Satan? Would biblical prophecies about Armageddon influence her foreign policy positions on Israel and Russia? These are urgent questions the media have failed to ask. According to Chip Berlet, a leading expert on the Christian right, mainstream reporters tend to view apocalyptic fundamentalists as a "silly little side show" in American political life, when, in fact, one of their own may soon be a heartbeat away from the most powerful office in the world.

click on for the video-

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=...02+12%3A30%3A40


VOICEOVER: Does Sarah Palin believe that human history as we know it is destined to end soon? It's a question worth asking. Does she believe the current conflict in the Middle East is the beginning of an apocalyptic war between the forces of God and Satan? She just might, and it would be a good thing for voters to know before election day. Millions of American fundamentalists are convinced that mankind is living in what they call "the last days" or "the end times." Millions also believe that someday soon, true Christians will be transported to Heaven in an event called the Rapture. They disagree over whether they'll leave their clothes behind, but believers in the Rapture expect to leave the rest of us, leave us to a world ruled by the Antichrist and ultimately destroyed in the battle of Armageddon. Sarah Palin's religion is often described as Pentecostal. And although most Pentecostals are socially conservative, they're diverse enough to include Barack Obama's director of religious outreach and the CEO of the Democratic National Convention. Soon after the Republican convention, the McCain campaign put out a statement saying Palin no longer considered herself Pentecostal, but for most of her life, Palin has attended churches in a very conservative branch of Pentecostalism known as the Assemblies of God. Their website states plainly that "Jesus is coming soon," the Rapture is on the way, and that all but the saved will suffer "everlasting punishment." The video on the website features the preachings of Pastor Thomas Trask.

THOMAS E. TRASK, FMR. GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT, ASSEMBLIES OF GOD: This matter of Jesus coming again is so very real it could happen any moment. We're living at that very moment in this world's time clock today. But what does Sarah Palin believe regarding the end times? We don't know. She's been asked about the "bridge to nowhere," her hockey mom life, and her political experience, but she's faced very few questions about her religious beliefs.

CHIP BERLET, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR: The role of the media, the mainstream media, has been very bad so far, because they simply are ignorant about religion and Christianity and where these boundaries between faith and public life are.

VOICEOVER: Chip Berlet is a leading expert on the Christian right.

BERLET: So I'm a reporter and I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian reporter. I can ask these questions. I'm never going to have access to Sarah Palin. So, Sarah, here's my questions. Do you believe in the Antichrist? Do you believe we're living in the end times? Do you believe that Jesus will return in your lifetime? Do you believe that true Christians have to battle Satanic agents in the end times? Do you see yourself as a warrior for Christ as part of the new apostolic movement? All of these are questions that I, as a reporter and a Christian, ought to know about you in terms of the upcoming election.

GOV. SARAH PALIN (AK), US VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I grew up at the Wasilla assembly. Nothing freaks me out about the worship service.

VOICEOVER: On June 8, Palin spoke at the Wasilla Assembly of God, the church where she was saved as an adolescent. By now, millions of Americans have seen the video clips where Palin connects God to some very earthly deeds, like a $30 billion gas pipeline.

PALIN: God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built.

VOICEOVER: She also credits an African evangelist for prophesying her success in the governor's race.

PALIN: You know how he speaks. Eddie's so bold. He's praying, "Lord, make a way, Lord, make a way."

VOICEOVER: And she praised the Iraq War will be revealed as a task from God.

PALIN: —that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan, and that that plan is God's plan.

VOICEOVER: In the video, Palin doesn't mention the last days, but the man standing beside her, Pastor Ed Kalnins does.

PASTOR ED KALNINS, WASILLA ASSEMBLY OF GOD: And I believe Alaska's one of the rescue states—come on, you guys—in the last days.

VOICEOVER: Alaska's place in biblical prophecy is something Kalnins talks about a lot.

KALNINS: I know that people from around the world will be coming to the state of Alaska to get something from God. There are some states that God considered as refuge states, I've heard prophesied over the years. One is Wisconsin, and the other one is—. There's one other one [inaudible] 48, and the other one that was prophesied years ago and has been echoed along the way is Alaska.

VOICEOVER: Kalvins runs a school for missionaries called the Master's Commission. One of its tasks is to prepare young people for the last days. He recruits them with this video.

VIDEO VOICEOVER: God has a different idea.

KALNINS: God is invading Alaska.

VIDEO VOICEOVER: Master's Commission, Wasilla, Alaska, has one purpose: to know God and to make him known.

KALNINS: God has a destiny for the state of Alaska.

VIDEO VOICEOVER: The Master's Commission is one of the keys in God's plan for Alaska, the United States, and the entire world.

VOICEOVER: In the video from June, Palin is addressing a graduating class of the Master's Commission. Here she urges them to spread the spirit of prophecy throughout Alaska.

PALIN: —and that spirit of revelation also, including that spirit of prophecy that God's going to tell you what is going on and what is going to go on. And you guys are going to have that within you, and it's just going to bubble up and bubble over, and it's going to pour out throughout the state of Alaska.

VOICEOVER: But if Palin truly believes we're in the end times, it could have implications far beyond Alaska. The Assemblies of God, like many fundamentalist churches, endorses what's known as Christian Zionism.

TRASK: You see, I believe that Israel is God's time clock. Keep your eye upon that little piece of real estate called Israel.

~~~

PASTOR JOHN HAGEE, CORNERSTONE CHURCH: Jesus said in Matthew 24:32 that look at the fig tree, and when it blooms again, you will know that my coming is nigh at hand.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. That's Israel.

HAGEE: That's Israel.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

~~~

VOICEOVER: Christian Zionists believe that the creation of the state of Israel was prophesied in the Bible, and some say that Christ will return only when Jews take complete control of the Holy Land.

BERLET: This scenario is scary enough. But for some people it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They become so wound up that we're facing an end-times battle with the forces of evil that they began to aggressively pursue Islam as a power that's destabilizing the world. They become more bigoted towards Muslims. They push American foreign policy towards a more aggressive stance in the Middle East. They are not at all afraid of serious military confrontation with Iran and other states in the Middle East. And, in fact, some of them even talk about, you know, nuclear war perhaps being the endgame of the end times.

HAGEE: —that their flesh shall consume away while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall be consumed in their sockets, and the tongue shall be consumed in the mouth. That is a perfect picture of what happens to the human body in a nuclear blast.

BERLET: And some of them are praying that this will come sooner rather than later.

TRASK: And the church of Jesus Christ is the only institution that has a front-row seat to understand what's happening with world events and to wait with anticipation and expectation as a "yes, yes" as we see these things happening. The world is frightened, the world is paralyzed, and the church is mobilized. There's a world of difference.

VOICEOVER: In her prime time interviews, Sarah Palin's expressed a view of the Middle East conflict that's pretty black-and-white.

PALIN: It is obvious to me who the good guys are in this one and who the bad guys are. I don't think that we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take. I don't think we can second-guess what Israel has to do. We cannot second-guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself.

VOICEOVER: It would have been nice if Katie Couric or Charlie Gibson had asked Palin if she'd second-guess Israel if it launched a nuclear attack against Iran or if her support for Israel had anything to do with her belief in prophecy, but they didn't. And there's another issue where the media have dropped the ball regarding Palin's religion: Russia. End-times evangelists like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye, and John Hagee have long claimed that Russia is destined to attack Israel and start the battle of Armageddon. It's a belief rooted in Cyrus Scofield's 1909 translation of the Bible, the most popular version of scripture among fundamentalists for the past century. The book of Ezekiel tells that a land known as Magog will lead a group of nations to war against Israel. The actual identity of Magog remains a mystery, but Scofield pointed his finger at Russia, and Russia's been a staple of end-times prophecy ever since. In her interview with Katie Couric, Palin spoke about Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as if he were a beast, not the leader of the world's number-two nuclear power.

PALIN: As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska—it's just right over the border.

VOICEOVER: In the ABC interview, she didn't flinch at the idea of war with Russia.

CHARLIE GIBSON, ANCHOR, ABC WORLD NEWS: —NATO treaty, wouldn't we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?

PALIN: Perhaps so.

VOICEOVER: Once again, Gibson and Couric missed their chance to ask Palin if biblical prophecy had influenced her views. For 2,000 years, Christians have been waiting for Christ to return to Earth. Many believers, from the founding fathers to Martin Luther King, to today's Catholic Church have interpreted the idea of the apocalypse as a metaphor for a coming epoch of justice, when hidden truths will be revealed. But in recent decades, those who claim to take the Bible literally have won huge followings and political clout. With Sarah Palin's nomination they are closer than ever to the Oval Office. John McCain seems to have realized that the people he once branded "agents of intolerance" are indispensable to his presidential ambitions.

BERLET: The idea that some of these apocalyptic fundamentalist preachers actually have the ear of Republican Party strategists and political figures and elected officials is very true, and it's not at all the kind of silly little sideshow that the mainstream media pretends that it is.

VOICEOVER: In these last days of the Bush administration, believers and non-believers alike will ask Sarah Palin many questions. Let's hope someone asks her if she believes in biblical prophecies about Israel, Russia, the Antichrist, and Armageddon, and if she thinks the world as we know it will last much longer.

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=...02+12%3A30%3A40

Comments from Registered Users of Real News Network:


ANZAC68 2008-10-02

You will find Bush and his neo-con mates have similar beliefs and see the World in this way too. Placing Mc Cain and Palin in the White house to finish off their work (Iraq, Iran, ??) is not so hard to imagine. Their ego's are off this planet and have no bounds. As soldiers you are grist for the mill; as tax payers you are cows for the milking. The best part is, history will show the sheeple of the USA happily and with complicity, voted them in, twice. "Fool me once, shame...shame.. on you; ...fool me ...you ..can't fool me again..?....' or something like that..i think..?! Regarding the brainwashing of the US people, Joseph Goebbels would be so proud that his methods (along with many other ideas developed from the Nazis and now in modern America) were used to such effect. For a laugh, Google Bush & Nazi. God Bless America

esar18 2008-10-02

Even in developing countries like India.. religion is not given so much importance in politics as it is in US. I really wonder what is so first world about this place? I truly pray to god to bless America.. and save us from Palin.

pdjd1992 2008-10-01


In response to 'promo06,' this is far from hogwash! My own membership in the Assemblies of God was revoked because I refused to sign a statement saying that the only true Christians are those who have displayed public evidence of speaking in tongues. People who have not been involved with fundamentalist pentecostal churches seem to be extremely naive and uninformed about them. This video does have one minor distortion--the same one I've seen in the mainstream media--regarding Palin's prayer request for God's direction in Iraq. I suspect this is due to a lack of familiarity with this type of prayer request, rather than an intentional distortion. In all other respects, this video is accurate, well done, and makes the valid point that the media is missing this very important aspect of what motivates and informs Sarah Palin.

eccentricaa 2008-10-01


Having been raised in an ultra religious household, I know many individuals who share the 'end of world' philosophies. Her religious aspect is an important question because her mentality towards other countries may be swayed by those personal beliefs. Regardless of what I believe religiously, I do strongly believe in the seperation of Church and State and the freedoms that seperation allows. I am more interested in knowing IF she can put aside her religious beliefs and represent the majority of the population of this country who may or may not share those beliefs.

promo06 2008-10-01

GET A GRIP! IWT has sure disappointed me in publishing this video, a lot of liberal left hogwash. I am not a churchgoer, but using religion to scare off the people is exactly a microcosm of the left`s contempt as they pander to the fear of The Sheople of America, a contempt that believes that voters are just sheep to be led about by the nose and herded into the shearing pens of the election booth. IWT is supposed to be objective, this is nothing more than a pure propaganda play that is not only offensive to the informed but an insult to the subscribers of a network that was supposed to be "free of the usual crap". Disgusted in Royston BC



Doubleduty 2008-10-01

VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH TRN on this one. Not that this isn't a pertinent topic, but the tone and mockery is definitely not objective in the least. This, like the mainstream media, has just treated one part of Christianity as a "silly and scary little side show." Biden is a Roman Catholic. Why don't you drill on some of those doctrines that would influence a man who is a heartbeat away from the most powerful office in the world? There is no such thing as "the real news"...everyone is influenced and biased and sadly enough it has hit this media as well.

Rue45 2008-10-01

We also need urgent inquiry into the Pentecostal beliefs of Sarah Palin as it relates to her husband Todd. Assembly of God Pentecostals believe the wife is to be in submission to the husband "in everything." This very important Pentecostal teaching is based on the following Bible passage: Ephesians 5: 22-24 "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything." Hence, the question in this Presidential election becomes: "Are we voting for Sarah Palin or Todd Palin? For example, if Todd Palin believed that an attack on Iran was a righteous war for God, would Sarah Palin be obliged to adopt his view regardless of her own view? If Todd Palin believed that the S-Chip program was too expensive and should be discontinued, would Sarah have to support t

MarciaJ 2008-10-01

This is why I continue to give a little money each month to TRN. They actually report on Real News that scares me but - that everyone should be made aware of. Thank-you.

pwmackay 2008-10-01

WOW, these people are more scary than the Neocon greed gremlins!

MajorTom 2008-10-01

So frikkin scary. We need to know. But of course if anything's gonna stay under wraps, it'd be her religious beliefs especially if they are as they appear to be. This is so disturbing.

thefleck 2008-10-01

Wow. That was excellent. I had never considered the potentially dangerous nature of religious fundamentalism from a Christian perspective. Scary.

Sarah Palin, A Woman, A Heart-Beat Away, A Biblical Evaluation









Below is an excerpt from Womanly Dominion, More than a Gentle and Quiet Spirit, by Mark Chanski. It is due to be available on September 12, by Calvary Press.

Chapter 13 is entitled Womanly Dominion in the Public Square. The subheadings are: 1. A Woman President? 2. A Woman Warrior? 3. A Woman Athlete? 4. A Woman Worker?




1. A Woman President?




Right now, it's January, 2008. The polls indicate that Hillary Clinton is the frontrunner for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Past polls have shown that in a general election, pitted against any Republican candidate, Hillary would win. There's also been talk on the Republican side of the nominee possibly choosing the present Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, as his running mate, placing a woman a "heartbeat away" from the oval office. Setting aside for the moment specific personalities and liberal vs. conservative ideology, would this be a good thing in general, for a woman to become our President?

Important Considerations




1. The Bible views it as a judgment and calamity upon a nation for it to be ruled by women. Isaiah 3:12 reads: "O My people! Their oppressors are children, and women rule over them. O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray, and confuse the direction of your paths." Surely here, God views women and children as less than ideal rulers. This probably refers to an inherent constitutional weakness in womanhood (1 Peter 3:7, 1 Timothy 2:14), which generally hinders them in high-pressured leadership challenges.

2. Esther was a wise queen, but she did not rule as a monarch. Persian authority rested with her husband, King Ahasuerus. Her influence on national policy was profound, but as a bold and advising helpmeet behind the scenes (Esther 5:1-4; 7:2-6), not as a political ruler. In her we find a noble pattern for our daughters. If George W. Bush is the most powerful man in the world, his wife Laura may arguably be the second most powerful man in the world (Esther 4:14).

3. Deborah was indeed God's appointed leader for Israel during the period of the Judges (Judges 4:1-5:31). But this was a morally dark and bleak era for Israel, and Deborah's rise to power was actually an indictment against shameful male dereliction. (See chapter 4 of this book in explaining Deborah.) The accomplished Puritan Poet, Anne Bradstreet, (whose husband Simon Bradstreet and father Thomas Dudley served as governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600's) understood that in trying times God could use a Deborah. In a poem commending the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Anne Bradstreet penned:

She hath wiped off th' aspersion of her sex,

That Women wisdom lack to play the rex . . .

Was ever people better ruled than hers?"[i]

4. The Bible looks favorably on the competence of the Queen of Sheba and the legitimacy of her secular rule over her gentile nation (1 Kings 10:1-10). Such national leaders as Elizabeth I in England, Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom, and Golda Meir in Israel are examples of competent women who have admirably led their respective nations. It's interesting how the latter two were both given the nickname "Iron Lady," indicating that their mettle was uncharacteristically strong for their gender. Steely firm toughness, an essential trait for effective ruling, is typically more pronounced in men (1 Corinthians 16:13). It's interesting how David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, called Mrs. Meir "the only man in his cabinet." [ii]

5. It is difficult to imagine a high-ranking female politician's being able to conscientiously fulfill her priority obligations as a helpmeet to her husband and a mother to her children. Golda Meir broke off her political responsibilities for four years to stay at home and raise her two children. However, upon returning to public life, her enormous workload contributed to the collapse of her marriage in 1945.[iii]

Summary Opinion

Though I would never vote for a woman as my pastor, I could, under the right circumstances, be persuaded to vote for a woman as my president.

Chapter 13 Anne Bradstreet, [i]The Works of Anne Bradstreet, Jeannine Hensley, ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967), p. 196.

[ii] BBC News Profile, BBC, Golda Meir, 21 April 1998.

[iii] Ibid.

ENDORSEMENTS:

"This book is a very helpful one that, when I first looked at it, I thought a man couldn't write! But he did!"

Dr. Jay E. Adams,

Dean, Institure For Nouthetic Studies, Esteemed Author of over 120 books,

Father of Nouthetic Counseling, Retired Seminary Professor, Local Pastor, Worldwide Lecturer



"Finally–a book that brings together nearly everything God's Word calls a woman to be–from within herself to her marriage and family, as well as the church and the public square. Chanski's Womanly Dominion is Biblical Womanhood 101, a biblical, succinct, practical course that shows women how to think God's thoughts after Him, to align themselves with their holy and awesome calling, and to free themselves from the pressures of worldly thinking about womanhood. Chanski is at times very frank and direct, at other times witty and humorous, and remarkably open and courageous, but he is always biblical and realistic, and knows how to open up the fulness of the woman's massive calling. If women follow the advice contained in this book, they will be prayerful, joyful, content, fulfilled, and too busy exercising biblical dominion in every sphere of life to join the female murmurers and feminists of the twenty-first century!"
Dr. Joel R. Beeke

President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics
Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

Grand Rapids, MI



"Today's woman wants freedom and power. Mark Chanski clearly and colorfully describes how we women can be liberated from feminist ideas, to exercise womanly dominion, as outlined in Scripture by the very God who designed us. We have dominion in performing our role as a wife, in nurturing our children, in managing our home, and in reaching out to others. Singles have dominion in work and in society. Our greatest privilege is to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, who humbly washed others' feet. He said, "Whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all." In the milieu of following God's will, we can be content, fulfilled, and honored. Womanly Dominion is a must read for women."

Mary Beeke

Wife of Dr. Joel Beeke

Author of The Law of Kindness



"Too many Christians, men and women, have bought into secular and even pagan notions of godly womanhood. Godly womanhood is not simply having the right ideas, or even simply the right doctrine. We do not need a generation of evangelical Stepford Wives, nor do we need a generation of Proverbs 31 Ann Coulters. Instead, the Scripture calls us to Christ-honoring heroic women with a gentle and quiet Spirit that is beautiful in the sight of the Lord. Mark Chanski calls us to this vision with grace, clarity, and conviction. This book will help women to grow in Christ. It will also help older women to mentor younger women. And it will help parents to raise daughters of dominion."

Dr. Russell D. Moore

Vice-President and Dean

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Louisville, Kentucky

Frequent Guest Host on The Albert Mohler Radio Program



"Womanly Dominion is biblical, practical and compelling. Mark Chanski provides the church with a presentation of biblical womanhood that has the rare combination of winsomeness and theological clarity. If you care about the home and church you need to read this book."

Randy L. Stinson, Ph.D.
Dean, School of Leadership and Church Ministry
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY
President, Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

http://reformedbaptistfellowship.wordpress...cal-evaluation/

God bless Sarah Palin and McCain.

May we be blessed to have them as our new leaders. In the name of Yeshua I pray. Amen.

Readers shared their thoughts on this article.

http://community.nytimes.com/article/comme.../04herbert.html

October 4, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

The Joe Biden Show



I expected Sarah Palin to perform well in Thursday's debate, so I wanted to watch it with the most conservative crowd I could find. (In truth, after her horrendous performance with Katie Couric, anything short of her head spinning around and spewing vomit would have been considered an improvement.)

I went to the unlikely Jake's Saloon in Chelsea in Manhattan where the New York Young Republican Club was gathering to watch (on Fox).

It was packed and festive. Fresh young faces (and a surprising number of old ones) swigged beer and sipped cocktails. People passed around hand-painted "NY ♥ Palin" posters. A man hawked Palin-as-Rosie the Riveter T-shirts from a shopping bag.

I knew that I had chosen the right place when I overheard the conversation of a couple next to me. The young man, pointing to his nametag, said, "my grandmother would have a heart attack if she saw me with this on." A young woman across the table asked why. "Because she's an old pinko socialist. She grew up on the Upper West Side," he said. Nice. Right place.

I settled into the corner as the noise lowered and the debate started.

Palin launched into her charm offensive — winking, smiling, dodging questions and speaking in her signature Sarah-phonics , a mash up of sentence fragments and colloquialisms glued together with misplaced also's and there's — gibberish really. Everyone in the bar lapped it up. It was The Sarah Palin Show.

As it became clear that she wasn't going to implode, I started to see the debate instead as The Joe Biden Show. And, it was good.

Through the booing and hissing, I saw a strong, authoritative, confident and sensitive candidate emerge. On the whole, he came across as intelligent and relatable; a real person. That's a quality that often eludes Barack Obama.

Biden's job in many ways was to reintroduce himself to Americans. Palin had stolen the spotlight, and he was campaigning in the shadows. The media was ignoring him. Voters didn't know him. In a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 32 percent of Democrats, 38 percent of independents and 41 percent of Republicans said they didn't know or had no answer when asked to say what they most liked about Biden.

That night he reintroduced himself with panache and probably further strengthened an already strengthening Democratic ticket.

Joe, you done good. Hey, can I call you Joe?



Readers' comments
http://community.nytimes.com/article/comme...ion/04blow.html

Moderator: Governor, you mentioned Israel and your support for Israel.

Sarah Palin: Yes.

Moderator: What has this administration done right or wrong — this is the great, lingering, unresolved issue, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — what have they done? And is a two-state solution the solution?

Palin: A two-state solution is the solution.




Bringing people together in love and faith

"A two state solution is the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict",Alaska govenor Sareh Palin said during the U.S.Vice Presidential debate last night.

Senator Joe Biden responded by saying that no one in the U.S.Senate has been a better friend of Israel than Joe Biden...
You must back Israel in negotiations..not insist on accepting
policies.

What does God say about His land?

Isaih62:1
For Zions sake I will not keep silent,and for Jerusalems sake I will not keep quiet until her righteousness goes forth like brightness and her salvation like a torch that is burning...

Has Israel gone mad? Has Sareh Palin gone mad also?
When will they ever learn that ISRAEL IS IN NO WAY NEGOTIABLE IN GODS EYES.
Praise God that Olmert has stepped down.Yet is Livni much better?

Prayfully she will not get her cabinet together in time & instead general elections will be called.If that be the outcome I believe Netanyahu will preside & win.

If God wasn't watching over Israel,their would definitely be no hope for them judging by the Israeli politicos who offer land for peace & the American politicians who are ready,willing & able to jump in an adultress bed with them.

Olmert was willing to give up the Golan Heights if he could be assured by Syria that they will cut ties with Hezbollah,Hamas and Iran.

The Golan Heights is a very strategic area in the North
and without it Israel will be a low sitting duck in the event of an attack.In 1948,1967,and 1973 Syria launched three attacks upon Israel from this location.They tried to cut off the supply of water from Israel from there but God had other plans.
Although Israel rejected their streams of living water centuries ago,
Praise Be To God that He keeps His promises and has not done likewise.

And yet American Christian politicians are ready to carve up Gods
land to be politically correct.Isn't it bad enough that the whole Muslim world seeks to delegitamize tiny Israel and now
one of our Vice Presidential picks is in agreement to a two state solution.Its not okay to murder babies in the womb but it is okay to concede land to the Palestinians and by that choice
effectively choose to murder the nation that God loves and cherishes and establishes as His own.

In the Bible God gave Abraham the land of Cannan.

The boundaries of Israel are listed in the Word of God.

Genesis15:18
To your descendents I have given this land,from the river of Egypt, to the great river Euphrates.

God told Isacc

Genesis26:3
Dwell in this land and I will be with you and bless you,for to you and your descendents I give all these lands and I will perform the oath sworn to Abraham your Father.

God told Jacob..

Genesis28:13
I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isacc.The
land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendents.

God told Moses...

Exodus3-8
I have surely seen the opression of My people who are in Egypt
and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters,so I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptian,and to
bring them up from that land to a good and large land;to a land
flowing with milk and honey,to the place of the Cannonites and
the Hitterites and the Amorites and the Perizites and the Hivites
and the Jeshubites.

And so Gods Word and promises goes on and on down through history and His Word stands as lasting promises forever.
God never reneges on His promises or forgets them.And if we follow him we should be in agreement with His Word and not seek to challenge it.

This land was given to Abraham and His seed through Israel and Jacob and Gods Word is EVERLASTING and UNCONDITIONAL as far as
Israel goes.God entered into a blood covenant with Abraham and
He gave the Jews a biblical mandate to posess the land FOREVER.

Genesis12:1-3
Now the Lord had said unto Abraham,get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred,and from thy fathers house,unto a land that I will show thee.And I will make of thee a great nation,and I will bless thee,and make thy name great:and thou shall be a blessing;And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee:and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

God has personally sworn to protect and defend the nation of Israel.

Psalm121:4
Behold,He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

Ezekial38:18-23
And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel,saith the Lord God,that my fury shall come up in my face.For in my jeolousy and in the fire of my wrath
I have spoken...

God has designed the flag of Israel and has promised to gather the Jews back to the land under that flag.

Isaih11:12
And He shall set up an ensign for the nations and shall esemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispursed of
Judah from the four corners of the earth,

God promised that Israel would be recreated in one day.

Isaih66:8
Who hath heard such a thing?Who hath seen such things?Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day?Or shall a nation be born at once?for as soon as Zion travailed,she brought forth her children.

May14,1948.

God has chosen the nation of Israel and the Jewish people as
His own inheritance.

Do we blatantly dare to bargaign off part of Gods inheritance or
vote into office those that choose to?

Psalm33:12
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord;and the people He has chosen for His own inheritance.

So if God created Israel for His own inheritance wouldn't it be prudent NOT to opt for or be guilty of having anything to do with a TWO STATE SOLUTION?

Their are some who are willing to place their bets against Gods
Sovereignty yet the Bible in Gods own Words tells us they will do that to their own destruction.

Isaih62:6-7
On your walls,Oh,Jerusalem,I have appointed watchman;all day and all night they will never keep silent.You who remind the Lord take no rest for yourselves;and give him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

So if we are to abide in Gods Word we can clearly see that a TWO STATE SOLUTION is in direct disagreement and opposition to GOD.

http://bigchurch.com/blog/7604/post_136455.html

Palin may have been way off in her opinion of a two state Israel...but of all the candidates...I think she can be reached the most and be reasoned with. And I think she is just having to parrot what McCain sees as the solution. Of all the candidates...she by far, is still the better one.

Look at who Obama leans on when he is in trouble? Terrorists? Islamic fundamentalists?











I'll take my chances with McCain and Palin.

Palin doesn't even know she was lying. She was just parroting (Reality town)

Date: 2008-10-03, 9:21AM PDT


PALIN LIED AND SAID: of Democratic presidential candidate Obama: "94 times he voted to increase taxes or not support a tax reduction."

THE FACTS: The dubious count includes repetitive votes as well as votes to cut taxes for the middle class while raising them on the rich. An analysis by factcheck.org found that 23 of the votes were for measures that would have produced no tax increase at all, seven were in favor of measures that would have lowered taxes for many, 11 would have increased taxes on only those making more than $1 million a year.

PALIN LIED AND SAID: Obama's "plan to mandate health care coverage and have universal government run program" for health care, and added: "I don't think it's going to be real pleasing for Americans to consider health care being taken over by the Feds."
THE FACTS: Wrong on several counts. Obama's plan does not provide for universal coverage, only mandates insurance for children and doesn't turn the system over to the government. Most people would still get private insurance through their work. Obama proposes that the government subsidize the cost of health coverage for millions who have trouble affording it and he'd set up an exchange to negotiate prices and benefits with private insurers — with one option being a government-run plan.

PALIN LIED AND SAID: "Two years ago, remember, it was John McCain who pushed so hard with the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform measures. He sounded that warning bell."

THE FACTS: Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska led an effort in 2005 to tighten regulation on the mortgage underwriters — McCain joined as a co-sponsor A FULL YEAR later. The legislation was never taken up by the full Senate, then under Republican control. McCain and his buddies swept it under the carpet. Oops!

PALIN LIED AND SAID: Said the United States has reduced its troop level in Iraq to a number below where it was when the troop increase began in early 2007.

THE FACTS: Not correct. The Pentagon says there are currently 152,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, about 17,000 more than there were before the 2007 military buildup began. Math is hard Sarah.


PALIN LIED AND SAID: Alaska is "building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America's largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets."

THE FACTS: Wrong again. Construction is at least six years away. So far the state has only awarded a license to Trans Canada Corp., that comes with $500 million in seed money in exchange for commitments toward a lengthy and costly process to getting a federal certificate. At an August news

PALIN LIED AND SAID: "Barack Obama even supported increasing taxes as late as last year for those families making only $42,000 a year."

THE FACTS: There is no record of this happening. Palin just made it up.

PALIN: Said a McCain-Palin administration "will support Israel," including "building our embassy ... in Jerusalem."

THE FACTS: Moving the U.S. Embassy from its present location in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a perennial promise of presidential candidates courting the Jewish-American vote. In fact, moving the embassy is actually required by U.S. law. But successive administrations of both parties, including George W. Bush's, have made the same pledge only to find that the realities of Middle East peacemaking have forced them to invoke a waiver to delay it. Jerusalem is claimed as a capital by both Israel and the Palestinians and Israel's occupation of east Jerusalem is not internationally recognized. The city's status is one of the key issues of disagreement in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. We could vote in Mickey Mouse to the office and it would change any of this. It’s like promising under McCain-Palin, that gravity won’t stop working.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/rnr/864930753.html
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment.
Exodus 23:2

But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Matthew 5:37

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
James 5:12

Amidst Her Dodging, Palin Contradicts the Republican Platform on Abortion
Wednesday October 1, 2008

posted by Steve Waldman


I've criticized Obama for talking about abortion reduction on the one hand and then airing ads, and taking policy position, that cut the other way. Now here's question for you pro-life Republicans: Why are the Republican candidates so cagey about their actual views opposing abortion?

To review, the Republican platform calls for a ban on abortion, in all cases. Period. It also calls for overturning Roe v. Wade. Speaking before a Christian audience at Saddleback Church, McCain forcefully said he was pro-life and would run a pro-life administration.

Yet he and Palin then shifted emphasis dramatically, making it sound like it's a matter best left to the states. Then, in her interview with Katie Couric, Sarah Palin against showed an unwillingness to forthrightly express her actual conservative views.

At the bottom of this post is the video of the interview. Here is the transcript with my comments in italics:

Couric: Let me get your take, if I could Gov. Palin, on a number of social issues. Because that's, they've gotten some attention, your position. If a 15-year-old is raped by her father,you believe it should be illegal for her to get an abortion. Why? Palin: I am pro-life. And I'm unapologetic about my position there on pro-life. And I understand good people on both sides of the abortion debate. In fact, good people in my own family have differing views on abortion and when it should be allowed. So ... I respect people's opinion on this.

Now, I would counsel to choose life.

Counseling to choose life." That is NOT the position of the Republican Party, the pro-life movement or, in earlier weeks, the McCain-Palin ticket. Actually, that's a pro-choice position! It's up to the woman to decide, but I'd urge her to choose life/sw

I would like to see a culture of life in this country. But I would also like to see taking it one step further. Not just saying I am pro-life, and I want fewer and fewer abortions in this country. But I want, then, those women who find themselves in circumstances that are absolutely less than ideal, for them to be supported for adoptions to be made easier. For more support given to foster parents and adoptive families. That is my personal opinion on this.

Couric: But, ideally, you think it should be illegal ...

Palin: If you ...

Couric: ...for a girl who was raped or the victim of incest to get an abortion?

Palin: I'm saying that, personally, I would counsel the person to choose life, despite horrific, horrific circumstances that this person would find themselves in.

Again she's reiterating a pro-choice position./sw

And, um, if you're asking, though, kind of foundationally here, should anyone end up in jail for having an ... abortion, absolutely not. That's nothing I would ever support.

This is an artful dodge. Yes, a few people say those who have an abortion should go to jail. But most in the pro-life movement say it's the doctors who should go to jail. Does Palin think abortion docs should go to jail?/sw
Then, now, some may characterize my position as being extreme, because I am pro-life ... and I want women empowered to know that, you know, we can help them. They can be strong enough, and they can have the resources provided them to give that child life.

The extremism, to me, is those who would support partial-birth abortion. Those who would disallow parental consent when it comes to a minor child who would seek an abortion. I think parents should have a say in that. They should be a part of their child's health care there. And those who, like Barack Obama, would support measures that would actually allow in a botched abortion, late-term abortion, that child being born alive, to allow it to not receive medical help to save that child's life. That's extremism to me. That is so far on the left side of the political spectrum and public sentiment in this country. That's the extremism to me.

That srikes me as a basically fair (though exaggerated) attack on Obama. But that positioning only works if they disown their own views on abortion, as she did in the first part of the interview./sw

Couric: So you want more support so women have more options, or girls have more options. But you also think it should be illegal, that there should be no punishment if a woman does break the law...

Palin: I would like to see more women given more support so that those of us who say, "You know, a culture of life is what we believe." Is best ... for human kind, you know, to respect the sanctity of every human life. And to understand ... that we live in a pretty messed up world sometimes.

When you consider what's going on in this world. The most promising and good ingredients in this world ... is a child. The hope that a child brings. And just understanding that. Being near and dear to my heart. I want to do all that I can to reduce the number abortions.

And to usher in that culture of life. And in my respect for the other side of this issue, I have not spoken with one woman who do, may disagree with me on, when abortions could or should be allowed, not one woman has disagreed, as we sit down and rationally talk about ... the common goal we have, and that is to see fewer and fewer abortions. And to provide more and more women support in this world.

Again, she refuses to state the Republican position that abortion should be illegal. She just re-states that she wants to change the culture so people have fewer abortions./sw

Couric: Some people have credited the morning-after pill as for decreasing the number of abortions. How do you feel about the morning after pill?

Palin: Well ...I'm all for contraception. And I'm all for any preventative measures that are legal and safe and should be taken. But, Katie, again and we can go round and round about the abortion issue, but I am one to seek a culture of life. I am one to believe that life starts at the moment of conception. And I would like to see ...

Couric: And so you don't believe in the morning-after pill.

Palin: I would like to see fewer and fewer abortions in this world. And, again, I haven't spoken with anyone who disagrees with my position on that.

Couric: I'm sorry. I just want to ask you again. Do you not support or do you condone or condemn the morning after pill?

Palin: Personally, and this is isn't McCain-Palin policy ...

Couric: That's OK. I'm just asking you.

Palin: But, personally, I would not choose to participate in that kind of contraception. It ...

Couric: Do you think it should be illegal?

Palin: I don't think that it should necessarily be illegal.

This is probably a direct contradiction to the Republican platform. The Catholic Church and many pro-life groups believe that the morning after pill works by causing the expulsion of a fertilized embryo. Pro-choice groups say that's not how it works.

But we can go, again, round and round. And what the foundation I believe of this debate, of this discussion, even of your questions, is do you believe in the sanctity of life? Are you are you gonna side on the pro-life position or not when decisions are in front of you and you have to make them?

Right, but Couric has just asked about some specific legal issues and you've indicated that you actually take the pro-choice position, i.e. of 'counseling' against abortion./sw

Now, as a vice president, what positions would a vice-president have to take on the abortion issue? They're not legislating. A vice president does not make law.

Couric: But if you have a moral problem with abortion, it seems to me you would do everything in your power to make it illegal and overturn Roe v. Wade and ...

Palin: Of course, it's the legislature, the law-making branch of our third, of our three branches of government ...

Couric: But they ...

Palin: ...makes the laws.

Couric: ...your vision or the administration's vision.

Palin: Well, let's be practical about it and let's be realistic about a vice-president's role in this debate. I can personally share my views, which I don't apologize when I share my views of being pro-life. And, you know, I'll do that all day long if you want me to. But a vice-president does not make law. And a vice-president does not interpret the law either.

True that a vice president doesn't make law but the President does propose and sign laws so they're not irrelevant to the process. Is she saying that McCain-Palin administration will be neutral on what legislation Congress considers on abortion? This is just a dodge./sw

Couric: So you're saying this won't be a top issue for you if you're elected?

Palin: I will do all that I can personally to encourage that culture of life, to remind women that I believe with more empowerment, they - more and more women will realize that they are strong enough ... and they are able to carry a child and still continue a career, still continue education opportunities, all with the goal being fewer and fewer abortions in this world.

That's fine, but I re-state, if she wants to change the culture of life why won't she speak up in favor of laws that make abortion illegal?/sw

see the video interview (scroll down)

http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/20...alin-contr.html

read all comments

http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/10/amidst_her_dodging_palin_contr_comments.html

Palin, McCain cry "gotcha journalism" with Couric

Voice are you for killing babies? Are you for Roe V Wade? A simple yes or no would help me understand you.

Who is running for President and who loses is what counts.



Analysis: Palin gets back on track, but Biden wins debate


By Mark Preston
CNN Political Editor
ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- Sarah Palin stared criticism straight in the face Thursday, telling opponent Joe Biden and moderator Gwen Ifill that she would answer questions and address issues on her own terms during the vice presidential debate.






Joe Biden and Sarah Palin traded barbs Thursday in the only vice presidential debate this election year.

"I may not answer the question the way you want to hear, but I'll talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record," Palin said.

Since being picked as Republican presidential nominee John McCain's running mate, Palin has been under fire for not being accessible enough to the media and delivering tightly scripted speeches during campaign appearances.

Palin did not veer off-course during the 90-minute debate, but her stand on principle appeared to hurt her, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. Poll of debate watchers.

Only 26 percent of those surveyed said that Palin was more intelligent in the debate, compared with 57 percent who chose Biden, according to the poll of 611 adult Americans who tuned in to watch it. The poll had a sampling error of 4 percentage points. Watch the world's reaction to the Biden-Palin battle »

Overall, 51 percent of the debate watchers said that Biden did the best job in the debate, but 36 percent gave the nod to Palin. iReport.com: Who do you think won?

However, the Alaska governor, who repeatedly sought to emphasize the maverick credentials of the McCain-Palin ticket, overcame expectations, as 84 percent of the debate watchers said she did better than expected. Watch entire debate: Part 1 » | Part 2 » | Part 3 »


Don't Miss

• 'Morning Express' viewers pen debate headlines

Heading into the debate, both Republicans and Democrats said that Palin needed to convey to voters that she understood the problems they face every day, which have been exacerbated in recent weeks by the financial crisis. She met her match in Biden, who went toe-to-toe with her when discussing the problems of everyday people. While Palin talked about her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, Biden countered with Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware.

For Biden, Democratic and Republican strategists said it was essential that he direct his fire at McCain and stay clear of being overly aggressive in his criticism of Palin.

The debate watchers polled by CNN said that by a 7-point margin -- 43 percent to 36 percent -- Biden spent more time attacking the opponent. Still, fears of the Delaware senator being overly aggressive never came to fruition and certainly did not hurt him when it came down to the bottom line: who won the debate.

The conclusions of those surveyed in the CNN poll cannot be welcome news for the McCain-Palin campaign, but Republicans have to be happy with Palin's performance, which was gaffe-free even as it was short on substance. Full coverage of the debates

The theme of the debate was change as Palin and Biden sought to convince voters that they would shake up the status quo in Washington, a popular theme as approval ratings for the president and Congress are dismally low.

On this point, Biden, a 35-year veteran of the Senate, was more successful in selling this message. Fifty-three percent of debate watchers said Biden seemed more likely to bring change; 42 percent chose Palin.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/03/bid...?iref=hpmostpop

I can copy and paste but still you havent answered my question. Are you for killing babies?

Who is running for President and who loses is what counts.
Could God create a stone He couldn't lift.



Sarah Palin claims Barack Obama would 'pal around with terrorists'






John McCain's running mate questions the Democrat's ties to William Ayers during a rally in Carson. The Republican running mate also visits Costa Mesa, and is expected to appear today in Burlingame. You can't say she didn't warn them.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin introduced herself to the nation with a now-famous joke about lipstick being the only difference between a certain dog breed and a hockey mom. On Saturday, the Republican vice presidential nominee unleashed her inner pit bull, accusing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama of being someone who would "pal around with terrorists."

Her accusation -- made before an overflow crowd of more than 8,000 at Home Depot Center's tennis stadium in Carson, and earlier in the day at a Denver fundraiser -- signaled an increasingly abrasive stance toward Obama on behalf of her running mate, Republican nominee John McCain.

In Carson, Palin signaled her intentions early on in her 23-minute speech.

"One of my campaign staff said as I was walking out here, 'OK, the heels are on, the gloves are off,' " she said.

The "terrorists" to whom Palin was referring is William Ayers, founder of the 1960s radical group Weather Underground, who is now an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an acquaintance of Obama.

Palin began the attack with a wry observation about her disastrous Katie Couric interview -- she appeared to draw a blank when asked which newspapers and magazines she reads. Palin, who later told Fox News that she reads the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications, said she was annoyed by Couric's question.

Clearly buoyed by a well-received performance against her Democratic opponent, Sen. Joe Biden, in their only debate Thursday, Palin apologized for what she described as her "impatient" response to Couric.

"Evidently there's been a lot of interest in what I read lately," she said. "I was reading today a copy of the New York Times. And I was really interested to read in there about Barack Obama's friends from Chicago. Turns out one of his earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times, was a domestic terrorist, that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the United States Capitol.' "

The New York Times article, an investigation published Friday into whether Obama had a relationship with Ayers, concluded that the men were never close and that Obama has denounced Ayers' radical past, which occurred when Obama was a child. The article also said Obama "has played down his contacts with" Ayers.

"This is not a man who sees America as you and I see America," Palin said of Obama. "We see America as a force for good in this world. We see America as a force for exceptionalism. . . . Our opponents see America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who would bomb their own country."

The Obama campaign responded forcefully. "Gov. Palin's comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign's statement this morning that they would be launching Swift Boat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation's economic ills," said spokesman Hari Sevugan.

"In fact, the very newspaper story Gov. Palin cited in hurling her shameless attack made clear that Sen. Obama is not close to Bill Ayers, much less 'pals,' and that he has strongly condemned the despicable acts Ayers committed 40 years ago, when Obama was 8. What's clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy."

Republicans have long been expected to attack Obama on the issue. In August a major fundraiser for McCain spent $2.8 million on an ad by the American Issues Project that questioned Obama's relationship with Ayers.

(The donor, Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, helped fund Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that damaged John F. Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign when it called his Navy service into question.)

The anti-Obama ad aired in Ohio and Michigan in the summer. Last week, the McCain campaign said it would pull out of Michigan, a tacit admission that it expected Obama to carry the state. Palin, who did not know the campaign pulled out of Michigan until she read about it Friday, according to McCain aides, implied Saturday in Denver that she regretted the decision.

"Well, as I said the other day, I would sure love to get to run to Michigan and make sure that Michigan knows we haven't given up there," Palin said as she left a diner after visiting with soldiers' mothers. "We care much about Michigan and every other state."

California is a reliably Democratic state in the presidential race -- yet it also is a reliable source of cash for Republicans. After the Carson rally Saturday, Palin attended a fundraiser in Costa Mesa.

Today she is scheduled to headline a fundraiser in Burlingame, after which she is expected to leave for Florida. McCain, meanwhile, will take time off to prepare for his second debate with Obama, on Tuesday.

In Carson, Palin was interrupted numerous times by protesters, who were in turn shouted down by the crowd. She said that her father, Chuck Heath, was born in North Hollywood and that her grandfather was a Los Angeles photographer who specialized in shooting boxers. "I learned a few points about fighting from him," she said.

Many people in the Carson crowd compared Palin favorably with Ronald Reagan.

"What's wonderful about Sarah is that she's liberated without being liberal," said LaDell Jorgensen, 42, who drove from San Clemente for the rally. "She really connects with the old Ronnie Reagan patriotic people who love America."

Paul Nissan, 56, of Culver City, said it gets kind of lonely being a Republican on the Westside of Los Angeles.

"What's been set in motion with her makes it seem like California can get in the mix," he said. "It's encouraging for those of us out here in Reagan Country."

Nissan's friend, Jeanne Tanigawa, 57, said she was a McCain supporter even before he chose Palin.

"She's like the cherry on top," Tanigawa said.

Neither Nissan nor Tanigawa was bothered by Palin's claim that Obama "would pal around with terrorists."

"I'm aware of the background there," Nissan said. "I think it's down to where we've got to be blunt about associations and values. The ideological differences are so stark."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...?track=ntothtml

Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, But any fool will quarrel.
Proverbs 20:3

But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
2 Timothy 2:23

Ron Paul was the only Presidential candidate who stated.........i'm against pressuring Israel to give away the Promised Land.

the usa rejected Ron Paul.

God is Judging/collapsing the USA

http://www.nolanchart.com/article312.html

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/philip_sherwe...a_from_ron_paul

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/#.

By not winning Sarah Palin lost



The conventional wisdom on last night's debate is that by not losing, Sarah Palin won.

I have the opposite view. By not winning Sarah Palin lost.

For a period, it was possible to view the McCain versus Obama election as a toss-up, but we have gone beyond that point. It is no longer a toss-up election.

And events that take place during the campaign should not be reported as if it was a toss-up.

Obama is decisively ahead.

His lead is clear, it is reflected in state races and it is consistent.

McCain's only hope is to shock the race somehow. He succeeded in doing it at the convention. He tried and failed during the bailout crisis.

But there aren't very many opportunities to repeat the trick and last night was one of those. It was a long shot, but still a shot.

So Sarah Palin needed to win last night. Of course Republicans feared disaster, but avoiding disaster wasn't enough. Avoiding disaster means the race goes on smoothly and serenely.

And if it does that, Obama wins.

So by not losing Biden won.

There was a point during the primaries, too, when the election was being reported as close when Obama was in fact unstoppable. We aren't quite at that point. But we are nearly there. And so is he.

http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2008/10/the-conventiona.html

Palin's Pastor: God Will Damn America




Palin's pastor, Larry Kroon, warns God "is gonna strike out his hand against" America

On July 20, 2008, the pastor of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's home church, Larry Kroon, delivered a sermon called "Sin Is Personal To God." Kroon, the senior pastor of the non-denominational Wasilla Bible Church in Wasilla, Alaska, used the book of Zephaniah as his reference point for discussing "that great day of the Lord, when God will finally bring closure to human history... a day of wrath." According to Kroon, "all things and all people" are going to bear the brunt of God's "intense anger." "There's anger with God," he proclaimed. "He takes sin personal."

Kroon placed Zephaniah in a modern context, warning that the sinful habits of Americans would invite the wrath of God. "And if Zephaniah were here today," Kroon bellowed, "he'd be saying, 'Listen, [God] is gonna deal with all the inhabitants of the earth. He is gonna strike out His hand against, yes, Wasilla; and Alaska; and the United States of America. There's no exceptions here -- there's none. It's all.'"

(Kroon's sermon can be heard here; a full transcript is here.)

While Kroon has cautioned his parishioners against the mass marketed End Times prophecies of Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye, he has nonetheless invoked doomsday scenarios that mirror those on the pages of Lindsey and LaHaye's bestselling tracts.

"It's so very possible that God, instead of responding by granting spiritual renewal and sustained prosperity," Kroon said in a sermon on July 13, 2008, "could just as easily...it's conceivable that He could just as easily, for example, raise up a revived, prosperous and powerful Communist Russia with a web of alliances across the Middle East. And our gas pumps would go dry. The dollar would collapse. And the markets would crash. The kayak could go upside down. And it could happen in a matter of weeks. That could happen. It could happen by this fall."

Palin joined Wasilla Bible Church after leaving Wasilla Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church where she delivered a controversial sermon asking her audience to pray that the war in Iraq is "God's plan." When she is working in Alaska's capitol, she worships at the Juneau Christian Center, another Pentecostal church where charismatic displays like speaking in tongues and dancing in the spirit are encouraged. Palin describes herself as a "Bible-believing Christian."

Palin's presence at Wasilla Bible Church has not been confirmed for the days Kroon warned of God "striking out his hand against... the United States of America" and "rais[ing] up" an alliance of nations to ruin America.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/355545

Does Sarah Palin Have a Pentecostal Problem?





A sign for the Wasilla Assembly of God Church in Alaska, left, and Sarah Palin Left to Right.



If conservative columnist William Kristol is to be believed, Sarah Palin is surprised that her own campaign hasn't made a bigger deal out of the controversial remarks of Barack Obama's former pastor. The relationship between Obama and Jeremiah Wright is, according to Palin, fair game in the presidential campaign because it speaks to the question of the Democratic candidate's character. "I don't know why that association isn't discussed more," Kristol, writing in the New York Times, quoted Palin as telling him.


More Related

• Are Evangelicals Really Sold on Palin?
• Why McCain Picked Palin
• In Search of Sarah Palin

John McCain's campaign aides could probably answer that question for Palin. The ink on Kristol's column had barely dried before they were on the phone to political reporters declaring that the GOP nominee had long believed it would be inappropriate to raise the Wright issue. But McCain's current sensitivity is much more related to his running mate's own pastor problems than to any newfound campaign honor code.

Palin's religious background must initially have been seen as a positive to McCain campaign vetters, who assumed that her faith would appeal to the conservative base of the party that has always been suspicious of McCain. But ever since she joined the ticket in late August, the Alaska governor's various religious affiliations have caused headaches. First came reports that her pastor at the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church was connected to Jews for Jesus, an organization that seeks to convert Jews to Christianity.

Prominent Jewish leaders, including the co-chair of McCain's Jewish outreach effort, have since demanded to know whether Palin also believes that Jews must be converted. The Bible Church became an issue again when Katie Couric asked Palin about the church's promotion of a program to help gays "overcome" their homosexuality.

And finally, a videotape surfaced of a 2005 service at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church, the Pentecostal church that Palin attended for most of her life. In the scene captured on video, Palin stands at the front of the sanctuary while a visiting African pastor prays that God will help her gubernatorial campaign and protect her "from every form of witchcraft." Later in the same service, the pastor complains that "Israelites" held too many prominent positions in business, a comment that has further alienated Jewish voters.


http://www.youtube.com/v/iwkb9_zB2Pg&hl=en&fs=1


While the McCain campaign has promoted Palin to religious conservatives as a woman of "strong faith," they have gone to unusual lengths to avoid providing a picture of that faith. In fact, a Palin spokeswoman says the Alaska governor is "not a Pentecostal," and points out that Palin was baptized as a child as a Roman Catholic, although there is no record that her family attended Catholic services before joining the Pentecostal church where she became saved at age 11.

The candidate does not even claim the Evangelical label, instead using the code phrase "Bible-believing Christian" to describe herself. Palin's official biography on the McCain campaign website makes no mention of her religious affiliation.

According to Tom Minnery, vice president of the conservative organization Focus on the Family, Palin "is absolutely unashamed of her faith ... She is from the heart of Evangelicalism, a Bible church. There are just millions of Evangelicals who know how to place her because of that church connection." But Palin herself has at times consciously distanced herself from her Evangelical faith. When asked by ABC's Charlie Gibson about a comment for which she has been criticized — asking her former congregation to pray that U.S. soldiers in Iraq are "on a task that is from God" — Palin argued that she had been paraphrasing an Abraham Lincoln quote. In fact, she had used fairly standard Evangelical language in expressing a desire that human actions conform with God's will. In trying to separate herself from that tradition, Palin's explanation struck both secular critics and many Evangelicals as scripted by political strategists.

And in her interview with Couric, Palin was, if not ashamed, purposefully vague about her churchgoing habits. "I don't have a church, I'm not a member of any church," she said. "I get to visit a couple of churches in Alaska when I'm home, including one, Wasilla Bible Church." Church-hopping is a common practice for many religious Americans, but it is relatively unusual for Evangelicals with children to shift among a number of churches instead of belonging to one stable faith community.

The fact is that Palin's most consistent religious home has been the Pentecostal church of her youth. Though her family left the Wasilla Assembly of God in 2002, just before she launched her campaign for lieutenant governor, Palin has