Double standards: Right wing talking head John Gibson wonders why the Democrats can get away with religious metaphors when Republicans would be castigated for similar remarks. Cartoon courtesy of Pollyticks.

On Monday John Gibson questioned why there was no outrage about Barack Obama’s recent “Kingdom on Earth” statement while addressing an evangelical church in South Carolina. Apparently Gibson feels there’s some double standards at play here. Well, I have to admit that all this god talk by Democrats makes me more than a little nervous, especially considering both Obama and Clinton’s ties to evangelical Christianity. But evangelical Christianity is not fundamentalist Christianity and I have no true concerns that any Democratic candidate would want to condemn and tear down the wall of separation between church and state that has grown ever more shaky under Republican leadership. Therein lies the difference. One party uses religious metaphor in an attempt to relate to its constituents among the faithful while the other shamelessly panders to fundamentalist Christians who would be quite happy seeing theocracy on Earth. Just like John Gibson does when he talks about double standards. Of course I wouldn’t exactly expect cogent political analysis from someone who thought, out of all the pressing issues of the day, that Obama’s nicotine addiction was newsworthy.

read more »