From the "60 Minutes" interview:
Schmidt said he asked Palin about her serenity in the face of becoming "one of the most famous people in the world." He quoted her as saying, "It's God's plan."
This, of course, is open to interpretation. Is it an expression of religious and spiritual calm at a moment of high drama? Or is it exactly the use of religion to sanctify one's own ambition and a dangerous fusion of divine will and human action? My view is a mixture of the two, if the quote is exactly accurate.
But both interpretations are more than a little troubling in a secular politician.
Palin isn't a minister or priest. She isn't a bishop. She is a celebrity, who spent ten minutes trying to run a state much bigger than Texas with the population of the District of Columbia. When she says "it's God's will", she is saying, it seems to me, either that her destiny is foretold as a modern day Esther (which is a strong theme among her Christianist supporters); or that it doesn't matter what decisions she makes in office because God is in charge. So she is either filled with delusions of grandeur and prone to say things that believing Christians keep private out of humility; or she thinks she's some kind of Messiah figure.