The Brody File

Sarah Palin: Part 2

David Brody — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:02:51 GMT

Watch part two of my interview with Sarah Palin that aired on The 700 Club Friday morning.

Palin Asks People to Invite God to Take Over in Their Lives

David Brody — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:28:49 GMT

One of the most interesting parts of the book is something nearly everyone is overlooking. Well, not The Brody File. At the end of "Going Rogue" Sarah Palin actually invites people to let God take over their lives. Wow! Watch the video clip below.

Sarah Palin invites people to let God take over their lives:

Sarah Palin: "My very last paragraph there sums it up and invites people, encourages people to do what I did and that's put their life in God's hands, our Creator who knows probably better than we know what the perfect path is for a person so God being so extremely important my faith is to my life I wasn't going to be hesitant at all to let people know what I believe."

Here is another way she sums up her invitation to accept God. This will like a Pseudo Altar Call:

Sarah Palin: "How in the World would I sum up my life except to say God at the end of the day I have really nothing but my faith, my reliance on you lord and I wanted to articulate that."

This is the actual quote from the end of the book in Sarah Palin's own words:

Sarah Palin quote from "Going Rogue": "I do know there is a God. My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite him in to take over...then see what He will do and how He will get you through. Test him on this. You'll see there's no such thing as a coincidence."

She also takes about her baptism when she was 6 years old:

Sarah Palin: "Knowing even back then that it is a step that one can take to show the rest of the World that I'm not shy about this. I am going to let the World know that this is my foundation and that this is my reliance is going to be on my faith in God."

Sarah Palin on The 700 Club

David Brody — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:05:41 GMT

My one on one interview with Sarah Palin aired across the country this morning on The 700 Club. You can watch it below. Unlike in other interviews, we talked extensively about her faith and how God has not only been the major presence in her life but it was the major presence in the book as well.

Part two of my interview will air on The 700 Club on Friday. In that piece, we will delve into more political issues including the 2008 campaign, abortion and what she would have done differently during her VP run.

Sarah Palin on The Brody File

David Brody — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:02:56 GMT

Hey everyone....below are a few quick clips from my one on one interview with Sarah Palin Wednesday in Grand Rapids Michigan. There is much more on the way but this gives you a little taste.

On the double standard for conservative Christian politicians:

Palin: I do absolutely notice that some of the conservative Christians who are members of Congress or who are serving in state legislatures, yes it seems like certainly like the leftist media treats them a little bit different. There are some double standards. It gets kind of frustrating, but at the same time I think it makes us work harder. I think it forces us to be clearer and more articulate in what are positions are.

On forgiving her enemies and those who spread rumors about her and her family:

Palin: My momma's heart breaks when the kids are attacked so it is through a lot of prayer and a lot of reliance on prayer warriors all across our country though praying God's hand of protection over my kids. ...These are probably some lonely people, some shallow people who want to take a shot like that. And we need to pray for these people for one and we also need to keep things in perspective.

In the book she asks people to consider inviting God into their lives:

Palin: Give it a shot, put your life in God's hands and see what He's going to do for you, and He will reveal for you, too, these providential happenings throughout your life that surely can not be coincidences.

Brody: You realize when you say things like that the liberal media, people within the liberal media, they're going to blow a gasket.

Palin: Okay, this is what's going to happen, too. CBN, you guys are going to be Googled all over the place, and the liberal media will take things out of context. So lets just kind of acknowledge what's going to happen here. Their heads are gonna be spinning. So be it , though. Let's get some truth out there. Lets get some candid talk about a person's faith. That's part of what I'm all about and I don't hesitate to let people know where I am on it.

Reacting to Nicole Wallace who says Palin hated her from the beginning of the campaign:

Brody: She said on the Rachel Maddow show last night that Sarah Palin has hated me from the very beginning.

Palin: That's not true at all but I have gone a year with a lot of Americans having a lot of questions about the media strategy in the McCain campaign and this was my opportunity to answer those questions. This is how it worked, this is why we did the Katie Couric interview instead of doing an interview with maybe someone who would be more objective and perhaps not have an agenda. So I just laid it out and answered the questions.

But no it's certainly not a book seeking vengeance or any kind of vindication. It's answering questions that people have asked of me. And after a year of a lot of false reports out there, I'm excited to have the truth out there.

The Palin Interview: Thoughts and Observations

David Brody — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:26:06 GMT

The Brody File is writing this blog entry at 3am on Thursday morning. I'm traveling back on an early morning flight from Grand Rapids Michigan to Washington DC. My one on one interview with Sarah Palin airs across the country on The 700 Club later this morning. I will post the 6 minute piece on The Brody File around 11am so check back. As for individual clips, expect those to move here shortly after 12pm Thursday.

As for quick impressions from the interview, (mind you I'm writing this on an hour sleep in the middle of the night) let me just say that she seemed very comfortable and at peace. The last time I interviewed her during the campaign in October of 2008 you could tell that while she was in good spirits the stress of the campaign was wearing on her. Not this time. She definitely has the "shackles" off.

The interview focuses quite a bit on the faith aspects of her book including the fascinating part in the book about how she asks readers to invite God into their lives. Wait until you see the part where she looks directly into the camera and calls out the "leftist media" (her words)when it comes to her Evangelical faith and how she sees a double standard in how the media treats conservative Christian politicians. She also is very candid when I ask her about how tough it is to forgive her enemies. I also talk to her about abortion and healthcare, her poor poll numbers,what she would have done differently in the campaign and her harsh words about campaign aide Nicole Wallace.

We've decided to break up the Palin interview into two parts. Thursday's 700 Club piece will focus more on her faith. Friday's piece will have more of a political/campaign feel to it.

The interview took place at Zondervan Publishing in Grand Rapids on Wednesday afternoon. We were the only camera there to not only interview her but get exclusive pictures of her meeting and greeting employees outside. (with Trig in her arms)

By the way, her bus has a picture of a moose on the front of it. That is classic Sarah Palin. I'm not sure that there's really much to say after that.

Brody File to Interview Sarah Palin Wednesday

David Brody — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:03:33 GMT

The Brody File is set to do a sit-down interview with Sarah Palin Wednesday afternoon in Grand Rapids Michigan. Her book tour starts in this city tonight. The interview with Sarah Palin will air across the country on The 700 Club Thursday morning and you can expect to see clips of the interview starting Thursday on The Brody File.

So far her interviews with the big time media stars have been more about politics and policy but after reading her book the one prominent theme throughout is her faith in God. You can't flip through a couple of pages without reading either a reference to God or her saying a prayer to God or just how God has laid out all of these circumstances in her life. It's all there in black and white.

You want an example of this? Check out the Acknowledgments section at the end of the book. She asks readers to think about inviting God into their lives. That's right. I'm not kidding. The quote is below:

"I do know there is a God. My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite him in to take over...then see what He will do and how He will get you through. Test him on this. You'll see there's no such thing as a coincidence."

Sarah Palin and Evolution

David Brody — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:55:01 GMT

The media is gonna hate this one. In her new book, Going Rogue, Sarah Palin talks about evolution and her conclusion? She's not buying it. It seems as if she discounts Macroevolution but has no problem with Microevolution. Hey folks, Palin joins the millions of Evangelical Christians who believe exactly the same thing.

You know it's funny. People who believe in Evolution think Evangelicals like Palin are wacky. Yet who's the one that believes I’m related to Nemo? Nemo is real right or was Disney lying to me?

Actually, if truth be told, I look more like I'm related to Abe Vigoda from the 1970's sitcom "Fish"

The story on Palin is below right after you take in this scintillating picture of sex symbol Abe Vigoda:

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) vice presidential running mate, signals in her new book Going Rogue that she doesn't believe in evolution, panning it as theory that human beings "originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea."

According to a review published Sunday in The New York Times, Palin knocks evolution in her new book.

Elsewhere in this volume, she talks about creationism, saying she “didn’t believe in the theory that human beings — thinking, loving beings — originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea” or from “monkeys who eventually swung down from the trees.” In everything that happens to her, from meeting Todd to her selection by Mr. McCain for the Republican ticket, she sees the hand of God: “My life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did many years ago, invite Him in to take over.”

(More)

MSNBC notes that Palin also discusses a conversation she had with McCain's campaign advisor, Steve Schmidt, in her book.

"But your dad's a science teacher," Schmidt objected. "Yes." "Then you know that science proves evolution," added Schmidt. "Parts of evolution," I said. "But I believe that God created us and also that He can create an evolutionary process that allows species to change and adapt." Schmidt winced and raised his eyebrows. In the dim light, his sunglasses shifted atop his hear. I had just dared to mention the C-word: creationism. But I felt I was on solid factual ground.

Newsweek Photo of Palin Shows Media Bias and Sexism

David Brody — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:34:50 GMT

For all of you who live in a dream world and think the mainstream media isn't biased, get a load of the latest cover of Newsweek below:

You've got to hand it to the folks at Newsweek. They have accomplished being biased and sexist at the same time. Quite a feat. This cover has got to be a new low right? They don't use a photo of Palin on the campaign trail. No instead they take the sexy Runners World photo. Yes she posed for it but don't tell me they didn't purposely use that photo to make a point? I predict this cover will become a bigger story over the next 24-48 hours and let's face it. This isn't JUST about media bias. This cover should be insulting to women politicians. Where's the sexy photo of Mitt Romney? Why not a picture of Tim Pawlenty with an unbuttoned shirt relaxing on a couch in the Twin Cities?

By the way, where's the Newsweek headline that says, "Going Rogue and Going Places?" No instead we get Newsweek covers throughout the years like this one:

Conservative women are portrayed as nuts and dopey. Liberal women are heroes for the next generation.

Oy-vey. Someone get me a sedative.

Abortion, Catholics and President Obama

David Brody — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:38:59 GMT

President Obama may be playing with fire on the healthcare abortion issue. If abortion continues to be a major issue in this healthcare reform fight(it already has been and there is no reason to believe it won't continue to be) then we already have one of the big potential storylines of the 2012 presidential race. Will President Obama be able to maintain the inroads he made with Catholic voters during the 2008 election? The last thing the President needs is the powerful U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops picking a fight with the President in 2012. But there's a chance it could happen.

Read below from Politico:

By teeing up a public battle over abortion in the health care bill now before the Senate, Congressional Democrats could be risking more than just the fate of the legislation.

Hanging in the balance are millions of Catholic swing voters who moved decisively to the Democrats in 2008 and who could shift away just as readily in 2010.

According to exit polls, President Barack Obama won the support of 53 percent of Catholic voters, a seven-point increase over the showing of the Democrats’ 2004 nominee, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who is a Catholic. Among Latino Catholics, who are often more conservative than their white counterparts on social issues, Obama did even better, winning more than two-thirds of their support, a 14-point improvement over Kerry’s totals, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.

Those gains will be at risk if a polarizing abortion fight takes place in the Senate.

“There could be political repercussions in the election. It could be harder for the Democrats to keep those Catholics voters they gained and they may put some of their members at risk,” said John Green, a religion and politics expert at the Bliss Institute at the University of Akron.

Moreover, said Green, Catholics are a constituency that backs the reform effort itself. “To alienate them on abortion could be to alienate them on health care reform,” he said.

The abortion issue, practically dormant during the 2008 campaign, was reignited in the last hours of the health care debate in the House because of an amendment offered by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) that would prohibit the use of federal subsidies to pay for insurance that covers abortion, except in the cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is threatened.

The amendment, after heavy lobbying by the Catholic church, eventually passed despite the furious objection of the abortion rights advocates who have long been a key part of the Democratic base. Now the fight goes to the Senate, where there will be a sharp division on the issue between party liberals and moderates.

Already it’s become an issue in the primary to choose a Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy

In a local television interview, one of the candidates, state attorney general Martha Coakley , said that if she had been in the Senate she would have killed the health care reform bill rather than support the Stupak amendment.

One of her opponents, Rep. Michael Capuano defended his House vote for the bill by saying he wanted to keep the reform effort moving. But he vowed to vote against a final bill if it still contains the abortion funding amendment.

In the neighboring and equally Democratic and Catholic state of Rhode Island, the abortion amendment has played out another way. Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin, an outspoken critic of prominent Catholic politicians he believes are acting against church tenets, is engaged in a public feud with Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who voted against the Stupak amendment.

Anger over the church’s lobbying for the amendment prompted Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Ca.), an abortions rights supporter, to call for an Internal Revenue Service investigation of the church’s tax status.

It’s a hollow threat. No law prohibits religious organizations from lobbying Congress, provided the bulk of their budget expenditures are spent on other programs.

But the Woolsey retaliatory attack, published in POLITICO, generated fresh headlines about the dispute and could drive a deeper wedge between the party and a key electoral constituency.

Tad Devine, a Democratic political consultant, said the party would be better off downplaying the disagreement.

“Voters who consider themselves Catholic are able to see the church teachings in ways that can be pro-Democratic Party or pro-Republican Party,” said Devine, noting that the church is also a strong advocate for immigrants in the health care debate.

But smoothing over the conflict isn’t likely to become an option. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is just now surveying his members to measure passions on the issue, a spokesman said.

Sen. Ben Nelson, an abortion rights opponent, has said language banning taxpayer-backed abortion coverage is essential to winning his support. But a spokesman for the Nebraska Democrat told POLITICO Thursday that he has no plans now to introduce an amendment and he is not wedded to the exact wording in the House bill.

Pennsylvania Sen. Robert P. Casey, who also opposes abortion rights, said legislation should contain “strong language” to prohibit federal funds from being used to pay for abortion insurance coverage. Beyond that, however, he hasn’t said what his intentions are since Reid has yet to unveil a final bill.