Billy’s Boy Puts Sarah on Spot
April 26, 2011
Sarah Palin’s most favorite evangelist for getting publicity with, Franklin Graham, was on ABC on Easter Sunday, saying that President Obama wasn’t a true “Christian” and pouring fuel onto the Birther fire by saying he didn’t know why Obama “can’t produce” medical records to prove he was born in the United States.
Uh-oh. Sarah has traipsed around half the world with Franklin Graham–from Native villages in western Alaska, to Haiti, to the bedside of Franklin’s ailing father, Billy–to buttress her evangelical/dominionist base.
But now he’s come home to roost in her chicken coop. (The chicken coop, incidentally, is just beyond her “garden” and next to her “private swimming hole” that I spent last summer peering into from my perch next door.)
What is Sarah to do with Graham’s denunciation of the president for not providing medical records extensive enough to satisfy him?
She has a certain problem of her own with failing to produce medical records (although she claims she did) that document the parentage of her son Trig.
She can hardly join Graham in his quest for Obama birth records. Yet she can hardly denounce him for the inanity of his comments on ABC.
Between a rock and a hard place is where Graham has put Sarah with his remarks. And maybe not unintentionally, given that only a couple of days earlier he opined that Sarah would not run for president next year and that he was leaning toward supporting that paragon of Christian charity, Donald Trump.
Like father, like son. I write in The Selling of the President about going with Roger Ailes to Richard Nixon’s suite in the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York the morning after election day in 1968, when it had just become apparent that Nixon had won. Roger and I were sipping coffee in the living room of the suite when, as I wrote:
Billy Graham…came breezing past, an overcoat slung over his arm.
‘We did it,’ he said, grinning, his blond hair neatly waved. He went directly to Nixon’s room, without explaining whether ‘we’ meant Billy Graham and Richard Nixon or Billy Graham and God or perhaps all three together.
And now Billy’s son is raising the issue of medical records in regard to birth?
With friends like that, Sarah doesn’t need the rest of us.
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35 Responses to “Billy’s Boy Puts Sarah on Spot”
She is not going to be riding in the same airplane with Mr. Graham, seeing he is backing someone besides the Queen. Their relationship is over and when are they going to separate Church & State?
yeppers, it’s OVER……bridge burned. Enemy declared.
I wonder if Todd sent him a scathing email about how dare he, or I could see Bristol overstepping and doing the same since she has some skin in the game.
And yes indeed, where is the separation of church and state. We know it’s not existed for quite some time.
I’ll have to read your book Joe!
She’s gonna be distrustful of “The Donald” now, also too. Poor Scarah.
Billy Graham’s connection to Nixon (in general and highlighted by your account and the evidence on the Nixon tapes) tell the real story of this “man of God.”
By all accounts, Franklin Graham may be even worse than his father in that regard.
A family dynasty of grifters with lust for money and power.
Joe,
Franklin Graham’s comments are inTRIGuing, and it appears he is now distancing himself from Mama Grizzly. The connection of both Franklin,his more famous father and McCain back in early 2008 led to Palin getting chosen as McCains VP choice becasue Mccain had to pick a fundamentist or no religious backing for him. I have long felt the Franklin had some sort of input regarding Palin’s hoax because of Palins close ties with Graham.
Sarah got dumped.
And I bet that bites. That would hurt. That would make her mad. What’s she gonna do now?
Show em what ya got Sarah, let em have it. Give em a show. Don’t retreat, reload.
OMG. Oh wow.
There was a most interesting interview with Franklin Graham tonight by Lawrence O’Donnell. LOD decided to just let him give his sermon, but the zinger was at the end when LOD stated he was certain Obama was a Christian.
Regarding Obama birtherism, which continues to get massive attention and unchallenged promotion, will someone please tell me why countless interviewers, Christine Amanpour the latest, just sit there and don’t challenge the lie they are being told (by Graham, Trump, et al) that Obama never provided his birth certificate. (LOD didn’t get into that with Graham tonight.) Not only has it been provided for all, but so has a whole lot more proof, including 2 governors and other government officials swearing to its authenticity.
The interviewers just sit there, and it makes me ill to watch each time. Yet question the origins of Trig Palin, and there are attacks from all sides.
Well, Graham can’t afford to be linked to a Christian, Pro-life fraud, at least not for the moment.
That certainly puts a different feeling in my gut relative to all those “Billy Graham Specials” that my parents made us watch or would not let anything else be shown or done while they were on; and since I am a political Watergate victim, it definitely validates my distrust, disdain, and fear of the GOP ever since then. Please realize, I was not old enough to vote when Nixon was elected, because then you had to be 21. I was infatuated with Bobby Kennedy’s politics: I was so liberal I could cry. I grieved; I was not allowed to watch tv by my mother due to the intensity of my emotions. Then I had to live through the Nixon administration and I saw through the denials of the Watergate drama. During the trials, I got up early, made coffee, saw my husband off to work, and sat in front of the little black and white tv in the kitchen with my pen and pad of paper. I got to know all the characters, John Dean, Daniel Inoyue, Sam Irvin, Barbara Jordan, the Mitchells … on and on. If we had had the internet back then. Oh my goodness. I must have your book. I may tremble when I read it.
I’m curious, were there any chickens in the chicken coop? Maybe that’s where Todd sleeps when he’s in the dog-house..
All I saw were feathers and blood and a couple of half-burned Obama dolls with pins stuck in them.
–Joe
I still remember that tawdry little trip for an evangelical photo op that she took with Franklin to see the native community in Western Alaska after she’d let them freeze and panic for quite some time.
And of course the sight of the two charlatans in Haiti on yet another “humanitarian aid mission” which as best I could tell was to primarily try to give aid to Sarah’s reputation and to make her look human.(Not a success.) By the way, I don’t read the pro-Palin blogs so for all I know she’s been the Audrey Hepburn of humanitarianism to the Hatians, though it’s never been mentioned in any regular press since that I recall, but I don’t recall her ever mentioning Haiti again.
Wow, to me these people questioning Obama’s birth is just a cover for their racism. They can’t stand the fact that an intelligent well educated black man is our President. He has a real birth certificate of being born in Hawaii while we have nothing but Sarah’s say so on Trig’s birth. I think those “good old boys” in the GOP have used Sarah Palin to stir up the right-wing nut-jobs in their party and got more than they bargained for. I can’t wait to read your book Joe. I’m so looking forward to it. I know you have a number 1 best seller and the sales of your book will be off the charts…can’t wait!
Billy was never any better or more ethical than any televangelist. He’s just been around longer so people are used to him, and now he’s old and near death so criticizing him seems tacky. I wonder if he really thinks he’s going to be facing his god? Because he might get a surprise.
“A true Christian” in their view is an evangelical, born again, theocratic dominionist. “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.” We are past the halfway point on that now.
After seeing F Graham’s salary from his “charity” I knew he was a fraud. It’s too bad that xtian mythology seems to drain the critical thinking ability from the masses who are immersed in it.
Long past time for $P’s medical records to be released, eh? IMO, not going to happen.
Update to last story. Thank you Joe, for all your great reporting on this!
http://www.lauranovakauthor.com/blog.html
Thank you, Joe. I appreciate your perspective on this. Perhaps the Graham’s are more interested in what Sarah can do for them (tickle their ears), rather than in what they should be doing for GOD. Instead I see the trend in the Christian community ( giving up truth, not able to endure sound doctrine, lift up leaders who tickle their eyes, tell them what they want to hear, give up the Truth for a lie, for a fable). 2Tim 4:3
So, Franklin has judged that President Obama is not a true Christian.
First, I don’t care what religion, if any, the President professes. It’s none of my business. He’s a decent man with social conscience, working for the good of the American people. Why should I care what religion he is?
Second, I am glad the Presdient does not wear his religion on his sleave, or around his neck, or on his lapel. We don’t need our world representative flaunting religious symbols in the faces of people with other beliefs.
Third, I don’t care at all what Franklin has to say. I know the choir he is preaching to and they are woefully out of tune. He’s in the business for the money and fame. I don’t buy that kind of faith.
Forth, if Franklin is a true Christian, I wonder if this verse has occurred to him: “Judge not, lest ye be judge likelise.” Is Franklin a true Christian? By whose judgement?
Since sarah seems to only talk thru Twitter or FAKEbook….
I’m thinking the response would be that she ” Un-Follows ” Him. just saying.
Too young to have been very interested in the Nixon saga, but very intrigued with knowing more about how Roger Ailes has played into all this, aside from your book mentioned above, can you or anyone recommend other books for me to read to learn more about the Ailies/Nixon/Religious Right connections? I have read some tidbits here and there and want to learn more. Thanks
Franklin Graham, Pres & CEO, Billy Graham Evangelist Assoc., self described gospel minister. Says it all for me. He is, first, a businessman, a very financially well paid CEO of a religious-based business. In both recent interviews, I watched him dodge direct questions by slickly seguing into his Sunday sermon speak. It makes me wonder whether any in his flock ever question why something so simple as affirming their own personal religious conviction requires them to support his high-living celebrity lifestyle. I would also wager that the lion’s share of his income flows thru multiple layers of his church’s tax-exempt statuses.
That’s what galls me. Living large on the backs of many in his flock who can barely spare the few bucks they send his way, perhaps inspired by past devotion to his father. Living a bit larger by avoiding sharing the tax load the rest of us must then bear. If, as he says, one’s actions rather than their mere words prove the validity of their Christianity, then I conclude this man is a businessman and I’ll even take his word for it.
I couldn’t find him, I wanted to follow him long enough to tell him what I thought.
LOL, Is this going to be in your book?
I agree with you 100%, and if truth be known The Obama’s probably gave more to charity than Graham from personal income, Graham I’m sure received plenty.
Though I am loathe to give him credit for Alaskan humanitarian aid, Franklin Graham did come out to Hooper Bay (in the Yukon Kuskokwim region, where the food/fuel crisis call originated from nearby in Emmonak) to help rebuild the school devastated by fire. I question his motives and I certainly don’t like the propaganda that goes with his missions, but he has been active in Alaska a long time.
Anchorage Daily News columnist Beth Bragg wrote about Graham’s Alaska ties in 2006. In a September 2008 opinion piece, Kenai Peninsula College professor Alan Boraas questioned Graham’s role in Palin’s appointment of fundamentalist Chuck Kopp as public safety commissioner (Kopp had to resign under the revelation of a humiliating sexual harassment allegation within a day but enjoyed a $10,000 compensation for the trouble.)
Franklin saw that Sarah was sitting on her hands re: the Western Alaska energy crisis, it really was becoming egg on her face. She really could give a shit about resource-extraction poor regions in the State and especially for Natives (a reporter told me that her editor wouldn’t let her print what Sarah said when asked about Subsistence rights or preference for Natives – “They didn’t support me [in the Primary] so why should I support them?” – which is more truthful and makes a lot more sense than her odd references to Todd being an 1/8th Yup’ik as some sort of diversity badge the same way Alaska’s proximity to Russia and Canada gives her foreign policy creds.)
He saw an opportunity to get some serious publicity for his latest foray into his Alaskan record of emergency response. On the other hand, she got her first taste of private luxury travel (Franklin had three of his King Air jets fly $65,000 worth of goods out to two villages.)
She handily crafted this visit for high visibility under Christian relief without compromising her “fiscal conservatism.” It is interesting how she can justify using money from a Christian relief group that has a worldwide mission to try to relieve poverty at a time when there was more than $30 billion in the Permanent Fund, and no talk of rearranging priorities so that basic needs of her constituents were met. Instead she sent a ‘energy rebate’ of $1200 to every man, woman and child qualified for the Permanent Fund Dividend where direction of relief was negligible and did little to discourage consumption.
Here are a couple excerpts from the Q&A by ADN reporter Kyle Hopkins before the flight:
Q: How would you respond to people who said that you should have made this trip, you know, a month ago or six weeks ago? Why wait until now?
PALIN: Well from the day that Sean Parnell and I got elected, our efforts have been to make sure that we have a revitalized economy in Alaska. And that job opportunities would be seized by all Alaskans. Especially those in rural Alaska to recognize that instead of importing our workforce as we do today, to such a large extent, we want the young people in rural Alaska to get these jobs. That has been our effort from the day we got elected.
Now, as for personally what Sean and I have done as individuals to help in rural Alaska, in faith-based communities, you know I think, well I think Matthew 6:3 says it best. It’s a scripture that says, ‘let not your right hand know what your left hand is doing.’ If you’re going to do a personal charitable effort … what we do personally to support and tithe and offer assistance to some of these missions, I’m going to keep that to myself.
Q. But just as governor, why not go to the region, to the lower Yukon earlier, to see if things are as bad as they’re being described?
(Palin and Parnell looked at each other.)
[Palin, in classic laissez-faire Sarah style, despite being a big proponant of State/local government rights over the ‘Feds’ – would rather accuse local leaders of dropping the ball or lacking energy on improving village life when she had no solutions or interest herself.]
(Later, we talked about whether the Palin administration is discussing plans for these villages a year or 10 years from now.)
Q: Is it possible for these communities that you’ll be visiting, the communities that we’ve been hearing about, to sustain their population that they have now 10 or 15 year from now?
PALIN: It is certainly a possibility.
Some of these areas … they may need to see some change in leadership within the community, also. For the leaders whom are looked to for guidance with the young people, that these leaders show them where opportunities are also. So they can, as I just mentioned, seize opportunities for jobs, at the same time being able to be such a strong part of their communities still. It is possible.
Q. What makes you say that? How do you see a lack of leadership?
PALIN: I’m not saying it’s a lack of leadership, I’m just saying with new ideas, with new energy in some of these communities, with people not being afraid at all to just call it like they see it and let people know perhaps what their own experience has been in terms of finding success and being a part of the community, at the same time, having income — there’s nothing wrong with that. And in some of the communities I would say that perhaps new leadership would help provide solutions.
(Note: I asked for clarification later. Palin said she wasn’t necessarily calling for new elected officials in the region.)
“I’m not talking about anybody specifically. I’m just talking about young people who are desiring those who will help them see what the opportunities are in Alaska and not just seek government to provide solely for all the needs in rural Alaska.”
I’ll respectfully disagree with you about criticizing the father. He’s passed on his grifting legacy and his lust for “king making” to his son. Billy Graham is/was probably the most influential, mainstream preacher. People need to know his true nature, no matter how old he is.
His voice and words on the Nixon tapes were chilling…and he’s gone on to enjoy decades more influence in the oval office. In my opinion, it is NECESSARY to criticize him, no matter how old he gets, especially as his son is now walking in his footprints.
I always believed in the 10 Commandments of God. Since Franklin and Sarah purport to be such good Christians, why do they lie? It is called, “bearing false witness”. Why do they think it if okay to tell lies to get their way in life? Do they pray for forgiveness each and every time? What about greed? He said he gave his life to God but they are both millionaires many time over while real Christians suffer starvation and other suffering a little bit of money could end or ease.
When hit with freezing and starvation in Alaska, Sarah ignored the situation until Franklin came along. What did she do to help? She took a plate of cookies…….. Christians? BS
“what we do personally to support and tithe and offer assistance to some of these missions, I’m going to keep that to myself.”
OMG, I forgot about that lame ass response from her. It’s all about getting jobs in the midst of a crisis. gah!
I sent many a box and I crammed as much into them as I could, and donated to heating fuel funds.
Basically her by passing what she as a governor was doing about the crisis and jumping into what she and Parnell may have done personally is total BS, ha as if. That scripture quote sounds like a fine excuse for many, many of her secretive decisions, no wonder she remembered it.
I also forgot how much she threw Parnell under the bus. She is so lame.
LOL Probably still gets visits from her voodoo witch doctor.
The media seems intent on making the Hoax thingee go away. I’m pleased that the bots stirred a hornets nest over at Wonkette.
They have a nice bit on Levi’s new forthcoming book, and the comments are precious.
Regarding chicken coops. “Its like rolling a hand grenade into a chicken coop. A bloody mess too revolting to ignore.” And a second comment. “I’m truly surprised he’s (Levi) been allowed to live this long.” Plus a description of his death in a meth lab fire, that only Tripp survives. I think Wonkette is not going to allow the Palin witch get off with her hoaxes, and lies as easy as the media seems to be doing via Salon, etc.
The bots being a loathsome, vindictive and violence prone (at least in threats) group, it would be interesting to have Levi reveal his death threat mail. So far Sarah hasn’t accused him of being a pedophile, though surely that will be thrown his way eventually.
EXACTLY!
Palin was being interviewed via satellite on April 11th by Judge Pirro on a FOX NEWS segment. $arah made a statement (in regard to The Donald sending people to Hawaii to “get to the bottom of the birth certificate question”), saying Obama “has paid over $2 million dollars to suppress his Birth Certificate… must be something to it…”
Pirro then chimes in: “Yeah, I’ve heard that…” – that’s not reporting NEWS, that’s re-enforcing a RUMOR. It’s purely discussion, and sounds just like an entertainment show like The Insider, or Access Hollyweird.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwBwLhoFxPQ ( at about 40 seconds in )
Isn’t that that part where a NORMAL news anchor / commentator would stop the conversation and say:
1). Where did you get that figure? (and NOT: ‘I heard that too!’)
2). Why do you think he’s suppressing it?
3). Do you have any way to prove what you’re saying?
Granted, it’s Fox, and they aren’t known for investigative reporting, but – it seems to be the new standard in media-at-large news reporting nowadays. They don’t investigate, they repeat what they’ve heard previously as fact.
Palin has dramatically lowered the bar of investigative media.
Sarah Palin & The Professor: A Conversation, Part 4 is now up:
http://www.lauranovakauthor.com/blog.html
The media, the madness, and my moments with Rush Limbaugh, of all people.
Thumpity thump! Another one under the bus.
Regarding the religious affiliation of any of our Presidents, I’d be most comfortable if Obama truly finds his spiritual home in Islam, that he would be allowed to say so, publicly, here in the land of “freedom of religion. Having said that, I’d be much more comfortable knowing that the person that holds the title of POTUS eschews all of the fairy tales and does not subscribe to any of the religious mythology. That would make me feel much more confident in his intelligence and impartiality regarding such matters.