Earlier this year, TV preacher Pat Robertson insisted he was receiving campaign predictions from the highest possible authority.
“I think George Bush is going to win in a walk,” Robertson said on his 700 Club program on the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network, which he founded. “I really believe I’m hearing from the Lord it’s going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It’s shaping up that way.”
Robertson told viewers he spent several days in prayer at the end of 2003.
“The Lord has just blessed him,” Robertson said of Bush. “I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn’t make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he’s a man of prayer and God’s blessing him.”
This week, however, Robertson’s faith seems to be fading a bit. On Tuesday’s episode of “Hardball,” Campbell Brown reminded Brother Pat of his “word of knowledge” about the election. Suddenly, Robertson wasn’t quite as sure.
“[W]as this God? I felt that the lord was saying this to me, but maybe I was speaking out of my own mind.”
Well, he was speaking out of his own something, but whether it was his mind is unclear.
Campaign predictions aside, Robertson had a variety of interesting things to share on the program. For example, he explained that he met with Bush before the war began and offered his advice.
“I warned the president. I only met with him once. I said, ‘You better prepare the American people for some serious casualties.’ And he said, ‘Oh, no, our troops are, you know, so well protected, we don’t have to worry about that.'”
When it comes to sources for information, you can’t get much less reliable than Pat, so I sincerely doubt this meeting ever took place. But still, it’d be awfully nice if some enterprising young White House correspondent could ask Scott McClellan two questions for us:
1. Did the president meet with a crazed TV preacher shortly before the war and seek his advice? If so, why?
2. Did the president really believe we wouldn’t have to worry about U.S. casualties because the troops would be “well protected”?
And finally, Robertson went on one of his obligatory attacks against Islam.
“There’s no question about [the fact that Islam is a fountainhead of terrorism]….. [A]t its core, Islam is a religion of war.”
Then there was this gem:
“I have worked extensively in the Middle East and have many friends among the Palestinians and others. They’re delightful people.”
He didn’t get around to saying, “Some of my best friends are Muslims,” but he came close.
Just as an aside, why would MSNBC continue to rely on Robertson as a source for credible commentary? The man hates everyone not like him, he blamed American liberals for 9/11, and he’s called for nuclear bombs to fall on the U.S. State Department.
What does a guy have to do to get shunned by polite society? And when, prey tell, will Bush officially denounce his ally’s hatred? Just asking.