Rev. Billy Graham Offers Prayer, Help to Mitt Romney - East Idaho News
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Rev. Billy Graham Offers Prayer, Help to Mitt Romney

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GETTY P 101112 BillyGraham?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1349991886395Charles Ommanney/Getty Images(ASHEVILLE, N.C.) — Evangelist Billy Graham told Mitt Romney on Thursday that he would do anything he could to help the governor’s candidacy. The two met at Graham’s North Carolina home.

Near the end of the thirty-minute meeting, Graham led a prayer for the Romneys and said, “I’ll do all I can to help you. And you can quote me on that,” according to a Romney aide who sat in on the private meeting.

Graham is 93 years old and is in frail health — he was hospitalized over the summer after he came down with bronchitis. He has had prostate cancer and been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

But Graham on Thursday appeared upbeat during the meeting with Romney and Graham’s son, Rev. Franklin Graham. Graham was seated in a big leather chair as he chatted with Romney about his late father, George Romney, who died in 1995 after suffering heart attack while working out on a treadmill. The elder Graham considered George Romney to be a friend, according to an aide.

Graham asked Romney what he could do for him, and Romney replied that “prayer is the most helpful thing you can do for me.”

“And what you’re planning, what your son has shown me is going to be very, very helpful,” said Romney. “I appreciate that, it’s going to be terrific.”

Aides to Romney did not elaborate on what, exactly the Grahams showed Romney or what they are planning to do.

According to an aide, Romney and the Graham’s also discussed religious freedom, religious persecution, and growth of the Grahams’ ministry in China, Sudan and North Korea. They also spoke about Afghanistan, as Rev. Franklin Graham’s son has served three tours there.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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