No presidential candidate has won Pat Robertson's backing since the Christian broadcaster's favorite, Republican Rudy Giuliani, dropped out of the race last week.
"Mr. Robertson is not currently endorsing a candidate for president," Robertson's aide, G.G. Conklin, said in an e-mail Wednesday.
Robertson, who heads the Christian Broadcasting Network in Virginia Beach, endorsed Giuliani in November.
The former New York mayor did poorly with voters and endorsed Sen. John McCain.
Asked by CNN's Glenn Beck on Tuesday if he would vote for McCain, Robertson said: "I still have my misgivings. I'm not sure I can or not. I haven't made up my mind yet for sure."
McCain branded Robertson and the late Rev. Jerry Falwell as "agents of intolerance" during a campaign speech in Virginia Beach in 2000, days before Virginia's primary election.
"We are the party of Ronald Reagan, not Pat Robertson," McCain said at the time. He said he was not dismissing evangelicals, only "a few of their self-appointed leaders."
On CNN Tuesday, Robertson recalled McCain's 2000 comments:
"I had spent years and lots of money getting him and his buddies and his chairman on various Senate committees. And then to have him come down to my city and make a statement like that, it was outrageous."
McCain later tried to heal his breach with evangelicals. In 2006, he gave the commencement address at Liberty University, founded by Falwell.
Robertson ran for president in 1988 and founded the Christian Coalition in 1989. He hosts "The 700 Club," a television program broadcast from CBN's headquarters in Virginia Beach.
Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com
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Pat Robertson IS an agent of intolerance
Pat Robertson IS an agent of intolerance and so much worse. I expect that John McCain's truthfulness concerning this con artist will bring him more votes. I respect John McCain. I have heard Pat Robertson say to his viewers "touch your tv screen for a miracle."
As a Christian, I am disgusted by Pat Robertson and his fake holyman son who is now poised to bilk another generation of faithfuls. They are fakes and they use prayer and healing and words of knowledge on camera for the purpose of bringing in money.
Please Pat...
go lift some weights! No one cares who you endorse.
who the heck would want his
who the heck would want his endorsment?
Pat who ?
Like it really matters, except of course to get Federal Money to build an off ramp directly to his property...
OH GOD, I agree with pat!
I wouldn't endorse any of them either.....
Haters and Hypocrites
The usual bigoted, intolerant, anti-evangelical suspects come crawling out of the woodwork every time Pat is mentioned in the local press. Boring! Like a broken record grating on my nerves. I'll bet you these are the same folks who deride Mr. Robertson and his ilk for being "intolerant." Hypocrites! Never fret, once Pat buys the Virginian Pilot, you'll get to spew your venom every day of the week--even on Sundays!
Sadly, a telling indictment from Pat's own lips
Sadly, this story contains one of the most telling quotes from Pat himself on how he has changed over the years from a compassionate, Jesus-oriented human being to the callous, self-serving egotist he is today (and has been for some years):
"I had spent years and lots of money getting him and his buddies and his chairman on various Senate committees. And then to have him come down to my city..."
It's doubtful that Jesus ever spent much time or money trying to get his buddies into the Sanhedrin, and I'm fairly sure that Jesus never had the utter nerve to call Jerusalem "my city."
No matter how well-intentioned and genuinely concerned for humanity a person is in the beginning, Pat's journey again demonstrates the difficulty we all have in avoiding the corrupting influences of political power and money.
Unlike many of Pat's critics, I have the pleasant memories of him in the early days of the 700 Club in Portsmouth. I just wish I didn't have to add the more recent recollections of his contributions to American society into my memory mix...
Who cares?
Why should we care who Robertson endorses or doesn't? Pat Robertson is nothing more than a bigoted, self-absorbed, senile windbag with little to no relevance anymore. The sooner the media stops treating him like his every idiotic word is headline news, the sooner he can crawl back into his own little world and leave the rest of us alone.
Pat, God, and Rudy
I don't get it. Why did God tell Pat to back Rudy? Didn't God see what was gonna happen? Was God trying to embarrass Pat or what? You know, I think this whole Pat/God relationship thing needs to be rethought.
Pat Robertson
Pat is simply sulking and breaking his sippee cups because no one has asked the jerk to run for office. His only contributions to the election is hot-air!
Kiss of Death
Any candidate that gets his seal of approval is in reality getting the kiss of death. Would you really vote for anyone that he approves? Isn't that a violation of the tax laws? Using his pulpit to push forth a candidate, maybe we should start an investigation into his tax status. He has gotten wealthy off of the sweat and fear of his flock, mines, airplanes and who knows what all. A true man of the cloth would have given much more back than keeping as he has.
No Robertson Endorsement...That's a good thing
Whenever he or anyone like him endorses a candidate, that's my clue to stay away from supporting them. Instead of preaching on TV and trying to impress his intolerant interpretations on the rest of us, Robertson ought to spend more time by picking up the bible, sitting in a well lighted room, and reading it.
In my opinion there's not a lot of difference between him and those like him, and the radical mullahs of Islam.
McCain is the only republican in the pool that would get my vote, but this time it's going to be a democrat for me.
Will ever other local preacher in the area get equal time?
I'm eagerly looking forward to reading coverage of my rabbi's endorsement for President.
This Old Prophet
Robertson picked Rudy Giuliani because he thought he would be the one to usher in the end times scenario in the middle east. Don't you think it was interesting that he would tolerate Giuliani's stance on support of abortion and gay rights? What was the purpose of his endorsement then one should ask? If Pat truly had prophetic abilities, he should have been able to predict a winner or at least a forerunner in this election. Looks like this old prophet will now have to settle for McCain as his man. Giuliani ran on scare tactics... add a noun, a verb and 9/11 was all he talked about.
Pat it's time for a manifesto. Time to write in a one page Va Pilot article on what you really want locally and nationally. P.S. Any insights on this hurricane season? With global warming, I'm thinking about moving some insurance stocks.
If you truly wanted to be a conservitive, you and your flock would support conserving oil, and renewable energy, protecting preserving god's planet and hey, some wind farms off the coast! Ok, I digress.
So much for tolerance
Isn't it interesting the ones who scream for tolerance the most from everyone and for freedom of speech only mean for themselves and not the likes of Pat Robertson. If Pat has the $ and outbids everyone else, why should'nt he purchase something that's being sold on the market? If he brings a conservative slant to the Pilot, why is this a crime? I've never seen such hand ringing when a liberal buys a paper.
This garbage is only news
Because when he owns the Pilot, they might get fired if they don't print it. I'm not behind any of the candidates either, make a story of that...
No candidate has Pat Robertson's endorsement??
Oh my goodness, stop the presses! WHO CARES? He's off his rocker anyway. Why does this nonsense make the newspaper????