It’s kind of ridiculous to see the term evangelical being thrown around like it has been this election. Amy Sullivan’s latest Time magazine piece, “Are Evangelicals Really Sold on Palin?” is a particularly egregious piece of work in this regard:

But, as we have been told ad nauseam since the surprise choice was announced last Friday, Palin has already provided one unquestionable, invaluable assist to the Republican campaign: with one sweep of her perfectly manicured hand, she has supposedly erased McCain’s Evangelical problem and united the base that proved so key to George W. Bush’s victory in 2004.

Ok, the latest relevant Pew polling data shows that McCain has the support of 68 percent of white evangelicals — compared to 71 percent that Bush had in August of 2004. Barack Obama, despite blowing millions on evangelical outreach has the support of 24 percent of white evangelicals, same as Kerry in August 2004. And that was before Palin was picked. Now who exactly has the “evangelical problem”?

Sullivan goes on to argue that her appeal among evangelicals “may be limited”:

Lost in the stampede of social conservatives to embrace Palin this past week is the fact that she is culturally outside the mainstream of Evangelicalism. Over the past few years, a growing number of Evangelicals have been consciously distancing themselves from the more extreme stands of the Christian right. They live in the suburbs, hold graduate degrees, and while they might not want their children reading certain novels, would be embarrassed by attempts to ban certain books from libraries, as Palin is reported to have briefly considered while mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. They don’t attend churches where speakers charge that violence against Israelis is divine punishment for the failure of Jews to accept Jesus, as happened at one of Palin’s churches two weeks ago (though Palin has now issued a statement saying she does not agree with those views). And they would disagree with Palin’s decision to use her line-item veto as Governor to slash funding for an Alaska shelter that serves teen mothers.

Where to begin. First off, Palin apparently made an inquiry into the procedure for book banning when she was mayor years ago, and nothing came of it. As for the shelter for teen mothers, it is downright wrong and irresponsible to suggest she slashed funding. There was a proposed funding increase for Covenant House in the state budget from $1.3 million to $5 million. Palin didn’t grant the full increase, but did triple the budget to $3.9 million. Far from heartless.

As for who evangelicals will identify with, are they really going to choose a pro-choice Obama who’s pastor of twenty years damns America from the pulpit and believes Islam is a path to salvation over a mother of five who speaks about the power of prayer and who lives out her pro-life convictions? Also, The New York Times recently reported that she switched churches because she found her previous one too “extreme,” so she can’t be quite the Christian right villain Sullivan would like her to be.

That Palin won’t appeal to evangelicals is likely wishful thinking on Sullivan’s part. As a former aid to Tom Daschle and author of a book on “How and Why the Democrats are Closing the God Gap,” she’s not exactly unbiased. Contratry to Sullivan, the Obama camp even seems to think their chance among evangelicals are sunk with Palin, as they’re now running abortion rights ads in seven swing states which should go a long way toward undermining that evangelical outreach.