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God On Huck's Side?

Here's an incredible video with Mike Huckabee saying that divine providence is responsible for his jump in the polls. I half thought it was a parody mashup (the video was put online not by Huckabee's campaign). But, no, here's a report from the Liberty paper confirming it. He's addressing a convocation at conservative Bible school Liberty University and is asked why he's rising in the polls, heavenward. His answer:

"There's only one explanation for it and it's not a human one. The same power that helped a little boy with two loaves and five fish feed a crowd of 5,000 people and that's the only way that our campaign could be doing what it's doing. And I'm not being facetious nor am I trying to be trite. There are literally thousands of people across this country who are praying
that a little will become much and it has, it defies all explanation. It has confounded the pundits and I'm enjoying every minute of their trying to figure it out. And until they look at it from a just experience beyond human they'll never figure it out. And that's probably just as well. That's honestly why it's happening."

Afterward, according to the Liberty report, he backed up -- only an inch:

"It was Ghandi who said there are four stages in the process of a politician," Huckabee said at the news conference. "First, they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they attack you. Then they attend your swearing in. We're in stage three. We're looking forward to stage four in January 2009."

Much of the news conference focused on Huckabee's reference to God as a major driving force behind his increasing popularity. When asked if God was solely responsible for his surge in the polls, Huckabee clarified: "I'm saying that when people pray, things happen."

"I'm not saying that God wants me to be elected. The last time I checked, he hadn't registered in any of the states to vote. If he does register, be sure to let me know, because I will ask for his vote."

But logically, if people pray to have you elected and your polls rise as a result, doesn't that mean you think that God's on your side?

Whew.

Jake Tapper at ABC had some of this earlier. now here's the video:

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