Thomas Muthee was a visiting bishop from Kenya, where the idea of witchcraft is often grafted into more conventional religions. I doubt Palin specifically requested a prayer against witchcraft. Nor would one expect her to point at the bishop and laugh in derision during the service.

Muthee has helped found about 400 churches in Africa, and this is the kind of thing he's doing with his time.

As for the pipeline, I come from a part of the country where pastors pray in church for good crops or success in other material endeavors of the community, like for new school funds. Of course, I live in California, now, where the idea is to pray to Washington.

As for prayers by political leaders in general, you might want to look up some past presidents. Start with Roosevelt's prayer on D-Day, broadcast to the nation over the public airwaves. The idea that politicians should avoid God like the plague is a relatively recent one.

I would be far more comfortable with Palin as President five years from now than Obama today. But you do remember Obama's running against McCain, right?