Sarah Palin told a group of Alaska Republicans last week about preparing to go on stage for the vice presidential debate. “So I’m looking around for somebody to pray with, I just need maybe a little help, maybe a little extra,” she said. “And the McCain campaign, love ’em, you know, they’re a lot of people around me, but nobody I could find that I wanted to hold hands with and pray.”
McCain staffers have taken umbrage at the suggestion that they’re not the praying types.
The rest of the anecdote (starting at the 4 minute mark) is actually quite charming. She asks her daughter Piper to pray that God gives her strength and “speaks through me.” Little Piper responds, “That would be cheating!”
What’s politically interesting is that Palin could easily have told the Piper anecdote without dissing the McCainiacs. You can see why religious conservatives love her: unabashed about her faith and her contempt for McCain staffers.
(Originally posted at Steve Waldman’s blog at Beliefnet.)
