Cory Booker: "Omitting God, Jerusalem From The Democratic Party Platform Was An Unfortunate Error"

From Politico, about the moderate-liberal Democrat and co-chair of the Democratic Party platform committee: "Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, N.J., and co-chairman of the Democratic platform committee, on Thursday called the removal of a plank supporting Jerusalem as the capital of Israel an 'unfortunate omission' but could not explain how it happened. 'It was an unfortunate omission, and it in no way detracts from the point that we have a president of the United States who believes both in God, we all know that, but also believes in that plank [supporting Jerusalem],' Booker said on CNN’s 'Starting Point.'"

President Obama personally intervened behind the scenes to force changes that put God and Jerusalem back in the platform: "But when pressed repeatedly by members of the show’s panel about how it happened, Booker didn’t offer any insight or explanation as to why the Jerusalem language was stripped when it had appeared in the 2008 platform. 'I have to say that sometimes, as bad as it might seem, there’s imperfections, there are mistakes made,' Booker said, later adding: 'I was co-chair of the platform committee. I was in the mix. This was not somebody who changed the platform. It was an omission.'"

Mayor Booker discusses the 'God omission from the Democratic Party platform: "While apologetic about the Jerusalem plank, Booker dismissed the absence of the word 'God' as a trumped-up controversy. 'God was in there, faith was in there,' Booker said. 'There are so many issues that evoked it that some of my atheist friends, it made them, ‘Oh, why are you always talking about faith and religion.’ All those issues were in there. The word ‘God’ isn’t in there once, so people are pulling it out and making a big deal out of it. That didn’t bother me as much.'"

Booker Rising response: After huge criticism, 'God' and Jerusalem yesterday got put back into the platform after a fraudulent vote (since it was clearly not a 2/3 vote) was rammed through.