And This Guy Wants to Be President?

by William Fisher

This week, we got yet another pitiful lesson in just how craven wannabe presidential hopefuls will be in pandering to their "base" - and how little some of them understand about how to wage and win the "Global War on Terror."

The lesson came from Senator George Allen, the former Republican governor of Virginia, who is widely reported to be seeking his party's nomination for president in 2008.

Senator Allen wrote to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to recommend 3-star general Jerry Boykin to be the new head of the Army's Special Operations command.

For those of you with political amnesia, this is the same Jerry Boykin who appeared in dozens of Christian evangelical churches - often in uniform - to deliver himself of such utterances as:

About his battle with a Somali (Muslim) warlord: "I knew that my God was bigger than his God. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

About the Global War on Terror: "America's enemy is "a spiritual enemy ... called Satan." The enemy will only be defeated, he added, "if we come against them in the name of Jesus ... We in the army of God, in the house of God, kingdom of God have been raised for such a time as this ..."

About radical Muslims: "Why do they hate us so much?... The answer to that is because we're a Christian nation."

About President Bush: "He's in the White House because God put him there." Read more.

Photo credit: Sen. George Allen, R-Virginia, addresses the New Hampshire Republican State Committee Annual Meeting Saturday, March 25, 2006 in Milford, N.H. Allen is a potential Repulican presidential primary candidate. (AP Photo/Lee Marriner)