God undecided on 2016 GOP pick

Paul Waldman, American Prospect - Had you asked me which of the 20 or so potential Republican presidential candidates would be first to claim that his candidacy was endorsed by God himself, I would have said Ben Carson, who has the necessary combination of deep religious faith and self-aggrandizing nuttiness. And today we learn that while the creator of the universe is still mulling his options, he's not exactly giving Carson a no:

    In an interview on Thursday with Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, Carson said he felt the hand of the Lord pushing him toward the White House.

    "Has He grabbed you by the collar yet?" host David Brody asked.

    "I feel fingers," Carson said. "But, um, you know... It's mostly me."

I still bet that eventually Carson will announce that he's received a signal from above that the campaign is a go. If and when he does, he'll surely have some competition, that is if 2016 is anything like 2012. In case you don't recall, God was awfully busy last time. Here are some highlights:

    Michele Bachmann, when asked if she was being called to run, said, "Well, every decision that I make, I pray about, as does my husband, and I can tell you, yes, I've had that calling and that tugging on my heart that this is the right thing to do." She also noted that God had called her to run for Congress in 2006.

    In July of 2011, Rick Perry said his impending campaign was a God-sanctioned religious mission: "I'm getting more and more comfortable every day that this is what I've been called to do. This is what America needs."

    While Rick Santorum didn't say God had instructed him to run, his wife Karen did say that she put aside her initial reluctance about a campaign after concluding that it was what God wanted.

    My personal favorite is Herman Cain's story of how one day when he was tired from going out and meeting potential voters his granddaughter sent him a text telling him she loved him. The sweet act of a loving child? Heavens, no. "Do you know that had to be God?" Cain said. "I know that God was speaking to me through my granddaughter, that this is something that I have got to at least explore."

    And here's a little bonus from four years prior, when past and future candidate Mike Huckabee, who may or may not have been called to run, explained a fleeting rise in his poll numbers by saying, "There's only one explanation for it, and it's not a human one. It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of five thousand people. That’s the only way that our campaign can be doing what it's doing. And I'm not being facetious nor am I trying to be trite." Apparently, God was only teasing, because Huckabee did not in fact become president.