In Palin We Trust?

In her speech last week at a Wisconsin Right to Life fundraiser, Sarah Palin expressed fears over the re-positioning of "In God We Trust" to the edge of American coins, a move passed by Republicans in 2005 and signed into law by President Bush.

Sarah Palin’s crusade for God and country “kicked up another notch” last week after she uncovered a government plot to marginalize God.  Ms. Palin delivered a speech to a Wisconsin Right-to-Life group Friday night, at which she banned all media coverage including personal cameras, cell phones or other recording devices.  The better to speak her mind?

But lo and behold, a group of enterprising reporters including Jonathan Martin from Politico.com found a way in anyway, by forking over the $30 entrance fee and covering the speech the old-fashioned way — with pad and pen.  There was a lot to write about.

Her speech, says Martin, “often veered into rhetorical culs-de-sac,” wandering “off script to make a point, offering audience members a casual ‘awesome’ or ‘bogus’ in discussing otherwise weighty topics.”  Palin raised the specter of government-backed euthanasia for the elderly and for certain special needs children under health care reform.  What should have been raw meat for this audience, though, elicited only sporadic applause.  “Palin’s extemporaneous and frequently discursive style,” writes Martin, “Was such that she never truly aroused a true-believing crowd.”

But most curious was her rant about the government’s attempt to remove God from the national currency.  She was referring specifically to the new one-dollar coin on which, she said, the familiar phrase “In God We Trust” would no longer be prominently displayed on the face of the coin but instead moved to the outer edge. “It’s a disturbing trend,” she said, implying that the next step is off the coin completely.  “Who calls a shot like that?” she asked, “Who makes a decision like that?”  Could it be Barack Obama? “Unsaid but implied,” writes Martin, “Was that the new Democratic White House was behind such a move to secularize the nation’s currency.”

As they say, don’t let the facts get in the way. For the record: Barack Obama had nothing to do with it. The legislation which inspired the U.S. Mint to move the phrase was passed by the Republican Congress of 2005 and signed by President Bush.  The law was rescinded by the Senate in 2007 in a bill backed by Republican Brownback of Kansas and Democrat Byrd of West Virginia.

With a new book on the way, it’s not surprising that the former Alaska Governor is more visible of late.  It would be more surprising if she truly believes she can “go rogue” – as in, say whatever she pleases to friendly audiences and, like a tree falling in the forest, hope no one else hears.

Stu Schutzman
ABC News