ANP managing producer, Davin Hutchins, and I spent the last few days following the Straight Talk Express in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Despite the insulation Sarah Palin normally has from the media we were able to get a few questions in to her.
We asked Palin if she thinks the Republican party should embrace Muslim voters— she said what any respectable American would say— its not appropriate to discriminate on the basis of religion. But what about the whisper campaigns that have called Obama a Muslim-- as if Muslim is a bad word? Fear of Muslims and Islamic faith is strong in certain sectors of Republican base, and some would argue it has been an effective campaign strategy. So what will Palin's comments mean to some of the conservative Christian base that Sarah Palin herself rallied.
Amid a growing distrust among her conservative Christian supporters of anything Islamic, Sarah Palin goes on record stating emphatically that Republicans and the McCain-Palin ticket welcome all Muslims, adding "it is not acceptable in my book" to discriminate on the basis of religion. Her message of tolerance comes amid a growing tide of Islamophobia at McCain-Palin presidential rallies in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. How Christian fundamentalists interpret her remarks in the last days of the campaign is anyone's guess.