The network can direct and edit a recorded interview as much as it
desires, like….say….Charlie Gibson’s widely seen interrogation of Sarah
Palin. But she knows what she said.

And the McCain campaign is trying to set the record straight on a thing or two.

Millions of TV viewers who watched ABC News’ interview
with Sarah Palin Thursday night never saw her take issue with a key
question in which she was asked if she believes that the U.S. military
effort in Iraq is “a task that is from God.”

The exchange between Palin and ABC’s Charlie Gibson, in which she
questioned the accuracy of the quote attributed to her, was edited out
of the television broadcast but included in official, unedited
transcripts posted on ABC’s Web site, as well as in video posted on the
Internet.

But in the version shown on television, a video clip of her original
statement was inserted in place of her objection, giving a different
impression of how Palin views the Iraq war.

Yep, I saw this getting a lot of play the other day, but read for
myself what her full quote actually was on this. It’s misleading if you
just get one soundbite out of a fuller statement.

In the interview, Gibson asked Palin: “You said recently
in your old church, ‘Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on
a task that is from God.’ Are we fighting a Holy War?”

Sounds like a fair question of considerable concern, if that’s all
she said. But it’s not. Gibson and ABC left out this part of what Palin
said:

“Pray for our military men and women who are striving to
do what is right. Also for this country, that our leaders, our national
leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God. That’s what we
have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that
that plan is God’s plan.”

Considerable difference.

It reminds me of one of Dr. Martin Luther King’s quotes I remember best:

The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.

The Christian goal is to pray ‘God’s will be done’. Distorting that for political reasons is beyond the pale.