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Pat Robertson takes back "word from the Lord" on election
By now, no doubt you've seen the news about Pat Robertson's Tuesday interview on CNN's Paula Zahn Now, wherein he claimed that President Bush told him there would be no casualties in the Iraq war.

If you didn't, here's the quote:

I met with him down in Nashville before the Gulf War started. And he was the most self-assured man I ever met in my life. You remember, Mark Twain said, he looks like a contented Christian with four aces. He was just sitting there, like, I'm on top of the world, and I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, Mr. President, you better prepare the American people for casualties.

Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties. Well, I said, it's the way it's going to be. And so, it was messy. The Lord told me it was going to be a) a disaster and b) messy. And before that, I had deep, in my spirit, I had deep misgivings about going into Iraq.

White House biggies, including Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, and Scott McClellan, all said Bush never said it. "I was right there," Rove told The Washington Post.

The Kerry campaign, meanwhile, sees an opening in Robertson's statement. "We believe President Bush should get the benefit of the doubt here, but he needs to come forward and answer a very simple question," Mike McCurry said. "Is Pat Robertson telling the truth when he said you didn't think there'd be any casualties, or is Pat Robertson lying?" The idea, of course, is to divide Bush's campaign from the "Religious Right," of which Robertson is perceived to be a leader. Forced to choose between Bush and Robertson, McCurry apparently believes, religious conservatives will choose the televangelist.

In truth, though, this will probably be much worse news for Robertson than it will be for Bush. Robertson's January comment on The 700 Club about Bush's re-election has been repeated so often that there's no way anyone is going to forget the line: "I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be a blowout election in 2004."

On Tuesday's CNN interview, Robertson said, "I thought it was going to be a blowout, but I think it's razor thin now."

From the "Religious Right," expect to hear much more harrumphing about Robertson as a "false prophet" than about McClellan calling Robertson "confused."

The full transcript, by the way, is here. Bartholomew's Notes on Religion also picks up on how "Pat weirdly" quoted Confucius's version of the Divine Right of Kings theory: "It's the blessing of heaven on the emperor." No doubt it was just part of Robertson's continued China outreach.

Bush & religion:

• Casualties of faith | President Bush's willful blindness in many of his decisions comes from mistakenly assuming that his desires are God's (Maureen Dowd, The New York Times)
• Presidents can't lead by divine inspiration | Bush validates and deepens America's religious divide by acting as though his faith should become official government policy (Linda Valdez, The Arizona Republic)
• Closing the God gap | it's no surprise that the president continues to tend to his flock (Gloria Borger, U.S. News & World Report)
• Bush running to be national pastor | President seems to believe that he is God's instrument in the White House. (Haroon Siddiqui, Toronto Star)
• The army of God marching for Bush | Voters in Florida are voting for Jesus — and John Kerry it seems, is not his candidate (The Times, London)

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October (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48