In an appearance on Thursday's "The O'Reilly Factor," Sarah Palin doubled down on her comments that America is "a Christian nation." When pressed by O'Reilly about the role of religion in crafting government, Palin asserted: "Go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant. They’re quite clear that we would create law based on the God of
the Bible and the 10 commandments, it’s pretty simple.”
Some in the blogosphere don't find it quite so simple, taking Palin to task for rewriting history and misrepresenting what America is.
- Doesn't Sound Quite Like America... Mediaite's Frances Martel drolly summarizes Palin's comments: "Creating law based on a specific religion doesn't sound at all like separation of church and state, but Palin countered that with a message to Americans that do not share her religious background: "Yay, welcome to America!'"
- 'Thank You, Sarah Palin' caustically begins The Moderate Voice editor Joe Gandelman, who unleashes a geyser of anger at Palin. "The fact is more people in the United States are Christians," he corrects. "But the United States is not a Christian nation. And the founding fathers most assuredly did not define it as such." Gandelman cuts her down in a withering conclusion.
What do Palin’s comments this reflect in political terms and what does it say about her potential to be a leader?
It’s yet another manifestation of the fact that unlike many politicians she is truly is unable to move beyond her immediate constituency. There is no effort on her part to present herself as a more broadbrush candidate and expand her voter appeal. If anything, many of her comments seem to narrow the part of her constituency and she seems in a perpetual campaign to consolidate voters who already like her.
Perhaps if someone sent her a box of bagels and invited her to a bar mitzvah when she could dance the hora she might start thinking beyond One Nation Under Who My Religion Says Is God.
Or send her a history book.
But I bet that would go unread — like the other history books she held in her hands when she was in school.
- 'Founding Documents' Contradict Her At Below The Beltway, a more even-toned Doug Mataconis meticulously refutes Palin's argument by quoting historical documents from America's early days. After a brief history lesson on 18th-century foreign treaties and America's secular national motto, Mataconis punctuates his rebuttal with help from a Founding Father: "The sum of what America was really founded upon, of course, isn’t found in theology, or in Sarah Palin’s brain, but in something Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Notes On The State Of Virginia: "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.""