Asking God’s help

A California delegate on Thursday prayed for God to liberate America from “eight years of captivity with Clinton and Gore.”

Bill Back, 75, a retired aerospace engineer from Yuba County, made the remark as he gave the invocation at a brunch for the state delegation sponsored by Citizens for a Sound Economy, a pro-business group.

Back said that just as the Israelites of the Bible had been slaves in ancient Egypt and won freedom, so too would the United States soon escape the administration of President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

Back, a longtime GOP activist, is a founder of a group known as Republicans for Republican Values.