Oooops. It looks like Charlie Gibson wasn’t very exacting when he did his interview prep. Note this excerpt from the Palin interview:
GIBSON: You said recently, in your old church, “Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.” Are we fighting a holy war?Notice Gibson’s smug assertion that he was giving Palin an "exact" quotation from her own words even though she, rightly, suspected that he changed them.PALIN: You know, I don’t know if that was my exact quote.
GIBSON: Exact words.
PALIN: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — first, he suggested never presume to know what God’s will is, and I would never presume to know God’s will or to speak God’s words. But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that’s a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God’s side. That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie. And I do believe, though, that this war against extreme Islamic terrorists is the right thing. It’s an unfortunate thing, because war is hell and I hate war, and, Charlie, today is the day that I send my first born, my son, my teenage son overseas with his Stryker brigade, 4,000 other wonderful American men and women, to fight for our country, for democracy, for our freedoms. Charlie, those are freedoms that too many of us just take for granted. I hate war and I want to see war ended. We end war when we see victory, and we do see victory in sight in Iraq.
GIBSON: I take your point about Lincoln’s words, but you went on and said, “There is a plan and it is God’s plan.”
PALIN: I believe that there is a plan for this world and that plan for this world is for good. I believe that there is great hope and great potential for every country to be able to live and be protected with inalienable rights that I believe are God-given, Charlie, and I believe that those are the rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That, in my world view, is a grand — the grand plan.
GIBSON: But then are you sending your son on a task that is from God?
PALIN: I don’t know if the task is from God, Charlie. What I know is that my son has made a decision. I am so proud of his independent and strong decision he has made, what he decided to do and serving for the right reasons and serving something greater than himself and not choosing a real easy path where he could be more comfortable and certainly safer.
Here, for the record, is the EXACT quote from Palin in the (impromptu) speech she gave before her church’s congregation:
Pray for our military. He’s [her son] going to be deployed in September to Iraq. Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right also for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God; that is what we have to make sure that we are praying for.No fair-minded person could read that as an assertion that our task abroad is certainly "from God." It is, rather, a prayer that the task will be a task from God, i.e., a prayer that we would do as God approves. It is, as she said, an invocation of Abraham Lincoln’s prayer that we might have the wisdom and the fortitude to do as God would have us do and not any kind of claim to special or privileged knowledge of the will of God.
Here is a link to an actual transcript and the video of the entirety of Palin’s speech. Do note that the site where it is posted is not--by any stretch of the imagination--in the tank for Palin or McCain.
What does it say, however, for the limited imaginations of Charlie Gibson and so many of Sarah Palin’s critics, however, that they cannot recognize (as Peggy Noonan put it) Christian humility when they see it?
Thanks to Chris Burkett and Steve Thomas for pointing me toward these two links today.
What does it say for the limited imagination of Palin to parrot Lincoln in response to interview questions? That out-smugs Gibson. She never did answer the question - she said she did'nt know - must have been above her pay grade. The NLT drinking game, of downing a shot of tequila with every mention of a founding father, needs to include Lincoln. Cheers!
If we move that game to the debates, count me in. Hope I get drunk.
ren does not know what he asks. . .when he asks NLT to discuss Lincoln more!! ren, you ask NLT to reenact the Civil War, including a reenactment of the fights over what to CALL that conflict. To most participants, Lincoln is an admirable statesman, maybe the very model of a democratic statesman; to others, he is the template for hypocrisy and tyranny. It gets tedious fast.
I want to be there, or at least have a video, of Julie taking her shots.
Allow me to translates ren's comment.
"I don't care that Gibson lied about what Palin said. I'm a super intelligent liberal and Plain is a stupid Republican. That is all anyone needs to know. So there!"
Everything else is window dressing. The core liberal belief is that liberals are the worlds elite. All else must bend before that conceit.
What does it say for “Ren” that he misquoted Gov. Palin on her interview when Gibson misquoted Sarah’s talk in the church? Says he’s a “true blue liberal hack” to my way of thinking, just like Gibson.
Gov. Palin was not quoting “Lincoln in response to interview questions”, she was quoting herself quoting Lincoln, in order to correct Gibson’s misquote, in an attempt to help him understand her meaning, which was obviously beyond his abilities or character to see.
Julie, thanks a lot for this.
The problem, of course, is that "exact words" might mean "half sentence."
It's all in the edit, or rather, it's what does not survive the cut that counts.
Palin:But a repeat of Abraham Lincoln’s words when he said — presume to know what God’s will is, and I would presume to know God’s will or God’s words. But what Abraham Lincoln had said, pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time. That’s what that comment was all about, Charlie. And I do believe, though, that this war against extreme Islamic terrorists is the right thing, because war is hell and, Charlie, today is the day that I send my first born, my son, my teenage son overseas with his Stryker brigade, 4,000 other wonderful American men and women, to fight for victory, and we do see victory in sight in Iraq - the grand plan - the task is from God, Charlie.
This seems to be what a Liberal hears. The rest about freedom and inalienable rights from God and humility and sacrifice, that is dross? No those things are the first things. How do Charlie Gibson and his colleagues miss that?
Gibson is a profoundly stupid idiot.
Probably more than ninety percent of the people in this country have attended a church service more than once. Although many have strayed they will never forget that the prayers were not for God to do something for them but for God to guide them. Even if they are not believers they know in their hearts the nature of the believers. The ten percent who have never been in a church have built a church to themselves. It even has a bible and a catechism. Marx is the prophet and his acolytes are the pastors.
I found it funny that Palin said, when asked if she took issue with "one nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, that "if it was good enough for the Founders" it was good enough for her. My high school sophomore son laughed at that one!
listen, if you read the whole transcript, including the stuff abc edited out, it's just amazing how much good stuff sarah said and how nuanced her complete remarks on even foreign policy are. the campaign actually needs to use this material liberally.