Falwells: Palin to help McCain in key areas
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By Ray Reed
Published: August 29, 2008
John McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket raised the excitement level for Lynchburg-area leaders including the Rev. Jonathan Falwell and Mathew Staver, dean of the Liberty University School of law.
“Not only is she pro-life, pro-family and pro-marriage, but she has a great record of exposing government corruption and government waste,” said Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church.
“I’m excited to see this,” Falwell said Friday. Palin’s selection surprised some observers, he said, but “I think it’s a good surprise.”
Staver said Palin represented “an absolutely brilliant choice” and “a master genius stroke.”
Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, said he learned about Palin from an airport TV monitor while traveling through Florida. “I think it’s a brilliant choice.”
“I think it will help him with women and conservatives, and I think that’s where he needed help,” Falwell Jr. said.
Jonathan Falwell said he was happy to see McCain set a course that he had indicated during an Aug. 16 forum held by Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in California. Democratic candidate Barack Obama and McCain both talked about faith during separate interviews with Warren, who wrote the best seller, “The Purpose-Driven Life.”
“John McCain made it very clear that his administration was going to be a pro-life administration, and he proved that’s his belief and his passion today with the choice of Sarah Palin,” Jonathan Falwell said.
Falwell credited Palin with a role in stopping Alaska’s often-ridiculed “bridge to nowhere” that was proposed as a Congressional earmark of $398 million to connect the city of Ketchikan to its airport on a nearby island.
Congress removed the earmark status from the funds and sent them to Alaska as general-use road money, after which Palin cut the bridge completely out of the state budget. At the time, she said it was too expensive.
“We need someone to step into leadership in Washington who believes higher taxes are not the answer, but less spending is the answer. We need a Congress with a leadership that tells them that’s what you need to do,” Jonathan Falwell said.
Falwell said he had never met Palin, but “I’m familiar with her record, her beliefs and her values.”
Staver spoke by phone from Minneapolis during a meeting of the Council for National Policy, a group of religious and government officials.
“The excitement in the room is absolutely palpable,” Staver said.
Attendees included evangelical leader James Dobson, “who said he has not been this excited since Ronald Reagan,” Staver said.
“Senator McCain could not have chosen a better vice president than Sarah Palin,” Staver said. “She is intelligent, effective, articulate and has substance. She has shown she has the ability to clean up government corruption and balance the budget.
“She can reach women, and I think she’s trans-generational,” said Staver, who also is founder of Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit legal group that defends religious freedom, traditional family, and pro-life issues.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-6th District, issued his own endorsement of Palin.
“She has a reputation for being a fiscal conservative who has made tough decisions and cut spending, and has worked to pass landmark ethics reforms in her state,” Goodlatte said.
“The voters of the Sixth District will find her a well-qualified candidate who shares their values of energy independence, personal responsibility, and a strong national defense,” Goodlatte said.
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Posted by ( Freedom ) on August 31, 2008 at 8:43 pm
14NYMETS,,hope you had fun w/your guest,,ahh ,,give me a sec..got to put on my gloves !!now you know why i cant type,,you try typin w/bxin gloves on !!WHINY,,say what??john edwards is funny,,bill clinton,,didnot have sex !!and thats in the history books !!TED KILLERDY,,you r nuts,,i cant stand that man!!he,s the biggest pusher of the POPES illegal invasion of usa by catholic mex so he can have more money than johnny boy and jerry jr !!I demand that u take that BACK !!,,and missie who cant throw a baseball !!i will have you know we demo arent the only ones that cornors that market,,some sicko that was chasing all them little pagers aroung the congress,,oh oh yea and that one flyin high at the airport batrooms !!,,oh oh oh how about your very own NY gov..chasing real real expensive girls aroung,,heck when i was in nyc all i could afford was a 100 girl,,but thats another story !!and yes i,m all for jerry saying anything he wants as long as its fits my opion,,if not he,s just dead wrong !!,,and now to ,,ha ha he he ,,lol,,dsylexia,,i gotcha on thatone,,just look at me ,,,and think for a min,,,tic tic tic ,,ok,,very good! not a darn cent,,cause if they did would i be this dang awful !!no i really dont know cause now its in what they call remidial classes,,in my day they just called us retards and gave us a helment to where !! so lets say 10 billion cause we is 10 times bigger than england !!so what u r saying is that clinton ,,smoke,,then got a pizza,,and then had ,,,moving along,,now a days any and everybody under age 37 has smoke pot,,so OBAMA dont count in that argument !!blabbb,,and for the record ,,you mispell some things also,,gotha again,,its freedom,,and get that curve right,,it was killedy that missed the curve an wreck and had underwater….i swear you need to put that wackkie stuuff away !!and again i,m tired of tellin u this,,i only love the teams thats winning !!so i love the METS !! get it right !!i hate the yankees !!,,and get a grip girl !!there is no mccains inaugration !!,,BUSH and MCBUSH r in texas havin a HURRICANE PARTY !!and chaney is bossing around the nat.guard in neworleans and his sidekick PULLIN is handing out guns to the dummies who stayed !! so if you r gonna hang w/me then at least read the papers !!got to go,,its time to change that diaper !!
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Posted by ( poet ) on August 31, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Ohhhh I get it t4nymets, if the democrats do something bad, it’s really, really bad. But if the republicans do the same thing it’s not so bad at all. You just overlook it and praise the same behavior.
Is it any wonder why so many people see you conservatives as just plain hypocrites and liars???
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Posted by ( t4nymets ) on August 31, 2008 at 4:58 pm
It’s so funny to listen to all you whiny Dems talking about ethics! This from the same people that gave us Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards, Kwame Kilpatrick, Jesse Jackson, Gary Condit, Marion Barry… and let’s not forget your favorite hero, Ted Kennedy, whose criminal conduct resulted in the death of a woman for which he never served a day in jail due to his status and connections in the state of Massachusetts! And you people are on here crying about Palin having someone fired! You all are the first to call Christians hypocrites, but take a look at yourselves. You’re whining about Jerry, Jr. having an opinion. So now you bunch of commies want to suppress free speech. And by the way freedom, how much does it cost the U.S. taxpayers for people with dyslexia? In the UK, it’s over $1 billion per year! I could find no stats on the United States, but I’m sure you’ll make some up for me. And you talk about Palin admitting to smoking marijuana in college?? Hilarious that you take issue with that considering the fact that Clinton admitted to doing it himself. But I guess what makes it okay is that he didn’t inhale, right? At least Palin was honest about it. By the way, Barack Obama has also admitted to inhaling, and inhaling frequently. Obamanation also went on to say, “That was the point!“ Free-dumb, I sure am glad that you’re a Dem (dim) as you would really bring down the curve for the GOP. When Madonna got in her dig on McCain, we all laughed. There are just some people whose endorsement you don’t want! Hey whiny babies, CVS has Huggies on sale when you need to restock. See you all at McCain’s inauguration!
By the way, freedom, how about those 3rd place Yankees?
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Posted by ( Cosmo Wafflefoot ) on August 31, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Calm down everybody. When abortions become totally illegal our manufacturing problems will be on the road to being solved. Of course people with money will be easilly able to fly to Canada or any other place where women still have rights. It’s the poor and uneducated that will breed like rabbits! Wages will drop. “Help” of any kind will become much cheaper. Churches, as in the good old days, will keep the poor in line with stories of pie in the sky and America can get back to business. Enough of this socialism stuff! You don’t work… YOU don’t eat! Labor will once again be dispensable. Good-bye workman’s compensation and let God’s will be done. All we need now is to outlaw birth control. I just hope I live long enough to pick out a butler, cook and a staff of nice young maids to amuse me in my declining years. It’s amazing what people are willing to do when the population outpaces the food supply. Lets face it, if God didn’t love poor people he wouldn’t have made so many of them.
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Posted by ( Patriot ) on August 31, 2008 at 11:06 am
If the Falwells like it, it must be crooked and not a good thing for America.
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Posted by ( Patriot ) on August 31, 2008 at 11:05 am
Take a look at her record in the Alaska News Papers, she is under serious investigation about Trooper Gate, she is as corrupt as the Republicans that she wiped out up there.
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Posted by ( Reality Check ) on August 30, 2008 at 10:49 pm
And all these posts are from people who are just Democratic hacks.
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Posted by ( challanger ) on August 30, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Message for (Bolt), (Voiceofreason)and those who agree with the same.
While you are challenging tax status on religious organizations when they comment on politics; how about we considering denying tax-free status for labor unions and their representatives who are political activists and are very verbal about their political choices. They also want to harness their members voting by eliminating the private ballot. Is that your idea of fairness?
Why don’t we just deny freedom of speech to those with whom we disagree?
You have every right to voice your opinions but I and those like me have a right to a rebuttal without penalty. So be fair and reasonable (voiceofreason).
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Posted by ( bigjimm ) on August 30, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Just when I was starting to get excited about voting the Falwells go and ruin it for me.
A shallow reason is as good as any this time around and this woman is nice looking.
You know just when I thought McBush was doing a Clinton type thing I find out she’s alright with the Falwells. Dadgummit. Did I mention she was cute?
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Posted by ( CitizenOfLynchburg ) on August 30, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Is anyone concerned that the candidate for vice-president for the Republican party is the mother of 5 children, one of whom was born just a few months ago? I understand that this child has Down Syndrome, possibly needing extra care and attention. Who will take care of these children while Mrs. Palin is in Washington? Is her husband a stay-at-home dad? Just wondering…
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