A reader, gmo2, responds to one of God-o-Meter’s recent observations:

“It strikes God-o-Meter that the firestorm of Palin criticism from elites–both liberal and conservative–is not fueled by Palin’s apparently Biblical worldview but by the fact that that worldview appears to be the major reason McCain selected her as his running mate”

thusly:

According to some recent polls, Palin is considered to be unqualified by about 55% of registered voters. That’s an awful lot of elites. The criticism of Palin is not at all about her Biblical worldview or because McCain picked her for it. I can’t say I’ve read or heard everything that’s been said about Palin, but most of the criticism is not about her religion but about her lack of knowledge of current affairs.

GOM is not claiming that that opposition to Palin is based on her Biblical worldview, as James Dobson has . Rather, it’s suggesting that the those who oppose Palin adamantly–including Republicans like Peggy Noonan, David Frum, and Colin Powell–don’t feel the religious bond with her that many conservative Christians do. What irks these more secular voters is the thought that McCain picked her because he knew that that religious bond would yield votes, despite what they see as Palin’s lack of experience/aptitude to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

A September Pew poll found that 78-percent of evangelicals had a favorable view of Palin. Only 54-percent of the general electorate expressed a similarly favorable view.

This is largely a replay of 2005, when many on the left and the right perceived Harriet Miers’s nomination to the Supreme Court as a cynical ploy to please the Christian Right.

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