The left blogosphere, and Jewish Democrats, are promoting the idea that Sarah Palin supported Pat Buchanan for President in 2000. Their sole evidence is that Lexis reveals that when Buchanan came to visit her small town in late 1999, she was seen wearing a Buchanan button. When I first read this, it sounded to me more likely that it meant "civic booster mayor of nothing town will wear the campaign button of anyone who is willing to waste their time coming to said nothing town, while that person is speaking in town." And indeed, Lexis also reveals--as I'm sure was readily apparent to the blogger who started the Buchanan meme--that Palin was on Steve Forbes's Alaska leadership committee, and was announced as such only about three weeks after the button incident was reported. [timeline and Palin's position corrected.] How about some basic decency, people?
UPDATE: I guess wearing a Buchanan button, once, when he visited Palin's town is supposed to tell us a lot about Palin's character, and perhaps her feelings about Israel and Jews, but Obama's 20-year intimate history with Rev. Jeremiah Wright is supposed to tell us nothing about Obama. [See Florida Rep. Robert Wexler: "John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that [sic] endorsed [sic] Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans.]
FURTHER UPDATE: It gets better. Wexler, in February: "It is unfair to attribute Pastor Wright's views to Barack Obama." And Ben Smith reports that Palin wrote a letter to the editor when the button story appeared, making it clear that she wasn't endorsing Buchanan, but just welcoming him to town, like any other candidate.
ONE MORE UPDATE: Pat Buchanan apparently (and self-servingly) claims that Palin and her husband strongly supported him in 1996, and that he met them at a fundraiser. Putting aside the unlikelihood that Buchanan would have such a vivid memory of meeting the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, federal campaign records, accessible online, show that Palin never cut a check to Buchanan (or for that matter, any other politician before 2004), at least not one big enough to be reportable. And it's hard to believe Buchanan would specifically remember a supporter in Alaska who gav e him fifty bucks. Color me skeptical. UPDATE WITHIN AN UPDATE: Ben Smith reports: "I also spoke to Bay Buchanan, Pat's sister, this morning. She also said her only knowledge of Palin's contact with Buchanan was at the event in the '90s, which she described as a fundraiser for Alaska Republican Jerry Ward."
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Why is everyone focusing on the button and not the supposedly active role she played in his 3rd (4th? 5th?) party insurrection against the GOP?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwEd_tcKBfU
I figure Buchanan is at least my 70% friend, in Reaganite terms.
Heck, I don't agree with the war either. And Palin is steadfast for it. But I still like HOW she's for it. Not the neocon, Bushite, Feith-like refusal to admit we screwed up.
So as you read the comments, realize what the moveon.org spin on this is and that these are among the talking points.
(sarcasm)
It is a good thing that the Democrats don't stoop to Republican's level.
(/sarcasm)
Very cold Jews.
I understand that Palin was just chosen by McCain, so there will be some focus on her - both positive and negative.
And I understand you are addressing (and essentially knocking-down) a silly Palin-Buchanan tie-in (yawn) that's being asserted by others.
So I guess my thought here is actually addressed to those (you've identified them as the "left blogosphere, and Jewish Democrats") pressing the rather pedestrian story that Palin once met and/or supported Buchanan.
To them I would say that I don't recall this sort of fly-specking for what were (and are) much bigger flies circling around Obama:
Obama launches his political career in the home of domestic terrorist Bill Ayers
Obama spends years working closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers
Obama chooses a serial plagiarizer as his VP pick
Obama dumps $110 million in grant money down a rat-hole with nothing to show for it - other than enriching himself and Bill Ayers
Which is worse: meeting and/or supporting Buchanan vs. working for years with the Weather Underground's Bill Ayers - and launching your political career in his home?
Apparently some people strongly dislike Buchanan. This is odd to me - because Buchanan is essentially a boring, long-winded pundit. He's usually trotted-out by the Left and/or MSNBC (ok - redundant) as a token "conservative." This is strange because few actual conservatives identify in any way with Pat Buchanan. But, I suppose, he nicely fits the Left's cartoonish vision of conservatives.
Yet - despite his flaws - surely we can agree that Buchanan's episodes as a windbag pale in comparison to Bill Ayers' episodes of blowing things up and endangering people.
If meeting and/or supporting Pat Buchanan is bad, meeting and supporting - and working closely with Bill Ayers for years - has to be much worse.
* * *
...in 1969, Ayers participated in planting a bomb at a statue dedicated to police casualties in the 1886 Haymarket Riot. The blast broke almost 100 windows and blew pieces of the statue onto the nearby Kennedy Expressway. The statue was rebuilt and unveiled on May 4, 1970, and blown up again by other Weathermen on October 6, 1970. Built yet again, the city posted a 24-hour police guard to prevent another blast.
* * *
In 1970 he [Ayers] "went underground" with several associates after the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, in which Weatherman member Ted Gold, Ayers' close friend Terry Robbins, and Ayers girlfriend, Oughton, were killed when a nail bomb that was under construction exploded.
* * *
Via Wikipedia
It's sounding more unlikely. Her husband isn't a Republican, and he's union. Is that the profile for a strong Buchanan supporter from 1996?
But I think this kind of thing is a consequence of the fact that she is pretty much a blank slate, that everyone is doing their opposition research in real time, and that -- in this internet age -- it's happening essentially in public.
The McCain campaign really did a terrible job rolling this out. You had surrogates yesterday -- Kay Bailey Hutchison comes to mind -- basically saying that they'd never met her and didn't know anything about her. How hard would it have been to book some western governor or someone who could say "I've worked with her on x, and she's great"? Likewise, they focused almost exclusively on biography and not on policy or issues.
I like "The Frozen Chosen"--though I had heard it use to refer to Presbyterians and other mainline Protestants.
And to paraphrase Dave Barry, "Wouldn't 'The Frozen Chosen' be a great name for a rock band?"
Oddly enough, so do Episcopalians.
The McCain campaign really did a terrible job rolling this out. "
You're kidding.
Ah yes, the Frozen Chosen.
Yeah, I don't know how you get from Pat Buchanan to protectionism. [/sarcasm]
And actually sometimes articulates conservative and libertarian principles. (As opposed to the current neo-cons who seem to think "conservative" means massive federal spending, cronyism, huge expansion of the power of the executive, foreign adventures, and imposition of democracy on unwilling peoples.) I'm by no means conservative, but I at least have some respect for conservative ideas. He still seems conservative, for good or ill, rather than just a cynical opportunist dedicated to enriching his friends.
Let's try this, an excerpt of which is as follows:
Unfortunately, Buchanan gives those of us who have legitimate concerns about mass immigration without assimilation a bad name. Because Buchanan is an anti-Semite, it is then politically incorrect to complain about the subset of today's immigrants who are themselves highly anti-Semitic.
His views have always been way out there, going back to the 1960s when he oppposed the Civil Rights movement. Much of his talk about African-Americans and other minorities is tinged with racism even today. (He also absurdly says that Hispanics are not of "European descent," despite Spain clearly being in Europe).
Most recently he wrote a book saying that Hitler was misunderstood and was on balance in the 1930s a positive force since he was anti-communist. If England and the U.S. had just given Europe to Hitler, the world would have been better off, but instead England went to war against him and forced Hitler into starting the Holocaust.
"Europe ends at the Pyrenees." How many times must we go over this?
I don't think he disputes that the people of Spain (as opposed to Latin America) are of "European descent."
"There are Jews in Alaska?"
I wouldn't be surprised if Jews were found on Mars. It ain't called the diaspora for nothing. I say the more the better.
I love trips down memory lane.
Democrat girly man #1: Dukakis
Democrat girly man #2: Kerry
Democrat girly men #3 : Obama and Biden
Sarah Palin has more cahones than Dukakis, Kerry, Obama and Biden combined
Palin is the genuine article
When do we get the photos of Obama and Biden riding in a tank with their helmets on?
Obama and Biden make even Kerry and Dukakis look tough.
Additionally, like the experience issue, this has a great potential to boomerang on them.
Of course Buchanan remembers those supporters who gave him $50. There were so few of them.
I like to remind myself that journalism (including reporting of events and chronicling the times with revelant past facts) is only a small subset of news.
Obama and the media shouldn't be able to use this effectively. It doesn't even compare with the Bill Ayers connection. Palin wore the button of an anti-Semite, Obama worked closely with an unrepentant domestic terrorist. Just another one of those traps for the left to fall into.
Did you read under "Further Update" in the original post where Bernstein reports (secondhand) that Palin wrote a letter to the editor specifically rejecting the notion that she supported Buchanan because she was wearing his button? And her presence on the Steve Forbes committee in Alaska casts significant doubt on the idea that the button meant anything more than a welcome.
I'd grin and bear whatever stupid protectionist measures Pat Buchanan would have put through in the astronomically unlikely event of him becoming President in 2000 in exchange for avoiding the Bush years.
Because Buchanan is an anti-Semite, it is then politically incorrect to complain about the subset of today's immigrants who are themselves highly anti-Semitic.
According to Wikipedia, Buchanan himself made the same complaint in State of Emergency.
so you agree the sole evidence was not a LEXIS search showing she wore a Buchanan button, then? correct your post/don't correct your post - up to you.
Paper trail? That AP article about the button? This is like the Obama lapel pin nonsense, only twelve years old on top of everything else. As for incentives, does Buchanan really need one beyond self-aggrandizement?
Namely the fact that he's an old-fashioned paleoconservative who hates neocons and the whole idea of exporting democracy at bayonet point.
Remember his trying to torpedo Bush during the Florida recount debacle?
IMHO, his opposition to the neocon hijacking of the Republican Party is one of Pat's few redeeming features.
2. It is incredible to read all the anxious posts from those supporting McCain. As a Democrat, I suspect that 99.9% of Obama supporters are like me: On first blush, we don't give a rat's ass about a pin she wore, if she did or did not support Buchanan, or any of the other smears on her that have started. Are they coming from liberals/Dems? Yeah, probably. But I hope that we all realize that most people don't care about these things. I think (ok, optimistically hope) that most of us look at the key issues. What is his/her position on abortion, the environment, national defense, etc., etc., etc.?
3. I don't believe all the above chat about Jewish people in Alaska. I think they all are only a myth. After all [joke follows], one of Alaska's largest cities is Jew-No.
4. I admit that here [in the boonies of Viet Nam] we don't get much news re American politics. But the VP pick is fascinating. We will not really know anything for sure till the election and the subsequent polling. But will any woman change from undecided-leaning-Obama to McCain? Not if they were Clinton supporters (are there any significant issues on which she and Clinton agree, but differ from Obama?). I think it was--for now--a good pick, as it has certainly taken all the conversation away from the Dems great convention. [What will Obama do next week, to take attention away from what will be a similarly successful Rep. convention?]
Okay, enough of my rambling. (Jet-lag is my enemy)
Talk about missing the forest for the trees.
Palin wore a Buchanan button? Stop the presses.
Meanwhile, put this on the front page too:
Obama's experience launching his political career in the home of domestic terrorist Bill Ayers
Obama's experience working with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers
Biden's experience as a serial plagiarizer
VC is a place for discussion. That is, contributing your own thoughts about things. If all you want to do is link to right-wing partisan pieces, freerepublic.com might be more to your liking.
I think you missed my point. (Or, I said it poorly, which is equally likely.) If someone is wearing the button of a political candidate, it is a reasonably inference that the wearer is a supporter of said candidate. Or, at least, is not strongly opposed to the candidate's views. (I personally, have never worn a button, put on a bumper sticker, or given money to a candidate or cause I did not generally support. On the other hand, I can totally see any politician wearing a button, so as not to slight the visiting candidate. And that was my main point. I simply don't care whose button Palin was wearing.
I do not check out the left-wing blogs, so I may have an unrealistic view of how reasonable Dems will be re giving Palin a chance. But I think most will keep an open mind. Based on the (very very) little I know so far, I really admire her consistency in her views. For anyone who believe abortion = murder, I cannot understand why they are every willing to carve out exceptions for rape, incest, etc.. She has a morally consistent position, which is something I cannot say for most politicians on both sides of the issue. Will this help her get moderate women? I doubt it, but maybe. Help her get Hillary voters? That is hard to imagine, but then again, I've always gone broke [to "Biden" from HL Mencken] overestimating the intelligence of the American voters.
Here is my prediction: The side that will lose this election is the one who sounds most like Ann Coulter or Michael Moore--in terms of vitriol, not in terms of substance.
Yeah. It's all part of the Zionist plot to control the Solar System.
DB,
I agree with you, but it does seem to matter an awful lot to many of the commenters here.
OTOH, I think that when someone is seen wearing a "Buchanan for President" button it's perfectly sensible to assume she supports Buchanan.
good god you must be a sap...i haven't paid a dime during my 'subscription' to volokh
it's funny seeing the right and left spin Palin---so far it looks like she's not very experienced (something that can be said about obama too..but which effectively limits the argument against obama) but that she's been really good fighting corruption (the fact that patronage murkowski and other repubs in alaska are lukewarm on her is a plus in my opinion)
otherwise, lets wait to see her articulate her views/debate/etc and scrap the partisan junk
Boy, this guilt by association thing is fun.
Naw. They're Teutons, like most of those Western European types. (But not me . I'm one of those Celts that the Teutons dispossed. Jerks!)
"A lot of people don't want you to read this, but I think it's vitally important. In the Bible - Thessalonians - there is the following passage (note that this is in the Slavonic Orthodox version of the Bible, which is not widely available). This is scary and we need to get the Word out. God placed this in the Bible for a reason - He wanted us to know. Please forward this to as many people as possible.
"And so it is written of a man of the Great Western Empire. In his youth he fought valiantly in the battles with the Red Dragon and had been imprisoned in the Dragon's Lair for lo these seven years, where his body was subjected to tortuous ritual and he faced great trials and tribulations. And his once great mind had been warped by the Dragon's Breath and there was great sorrow in the land.
By God's grace the man was set free from captivity and returned to the Great Western Empire and there was much joy and celebration. He rose to power as one of the tribe's Elders of the Mammoth, and in the fullness of time he became their leader, and ultimately the leader of the entirety of the Great Western Empire.
But the Dragon's Breath had remained in the man, and by his deeds as leader there was begat great woe unto the people of the Great Western Empire, and his leadership wrought God's great vengeance upon his people. There were storms of fire from the sky and great lakes bursting and the heavens opened, and the people said unto the Lord God "Woe unto us." And thus it was that during the First Century of the Third Millennium that God cast the Great Western Empire into the Lake of Fire and its tribes were decimated."
Ehud Aronson, a professor at the Institute for Religious Studies in Copenhagen, has identified the following (see “Thessalonians in the Slavonic Bible: A Study”, published in the May 2008 issue of “The Bible Machine”):
Great Western Empire = United States
Red Dragon = Communism
"Battles with the Red Dragon" = Vietnam
If the "battles with the Red Dragon" were Vietnam, then the "Dragon's Lair" is Hanoi
The Elders of the Mammoth = a reference to the Republican Party
The "Third Millennium" has been described as the next thousand years, starting with the year 2000
If those scholars are right, this could ONLY point to one man - John McCain. And as we all know McCain was endorsed by Pastor John Hagee, whose main teaching and goal of his ministry is to bring about the final Apocalypse of the World. The Book of Revelation speaks of a Beast and a man who is his minion on earth. Hagee and McCain? DO WE DARE????
PLEASE PASS THIS ON. PEOPLE MUST KNOW AND HEAR THE WORD OF GOD!"
Guilt by association? What are you talking about? The claim is that she supported Buchanan. I find her explanation plausible, but without that I don't see why it was remotely unfair to assume that someone who wears a "Buchanan for President" button is a Buchanan supporter.
I agree with you that it isn't ridiculous to assume she was a buchanan supporter just based on that---however now that all the other information is available it's clear she wasn't.
@jstubbs
thanks for the heads up..clearly we have all been blind for too long
Some things are moronic enough to deserve more than one comment. I think that qualifies.
This is the stock in trade of both parties. And as Jews, the left has no monopoly on our embarrassing brethren. In this particular case the appeal to emotion only has power because Buchanan, the father of the "moral conservatives'" beloved culture war, was so recently a darling of the right. And when the Republicans were featuring him as their keynote speaker just four conventions ago, though there were principled conservatives like William Buckley who objected to Buchanan's anti-Semitism, that criticism came overwhelmingly from the left.
Minor correction, LM. Buckley said something like he could understand why people thought Buchanan was an anti-Semite, though he himself did not think so.
In any case, as I said above, I think Palin's explanation is plausible.
Now I have to go back and re-read the article [sigh...]. I remembered it as being implicitly critical, though very politely so.
So do I. I think the inference from the button was reasonable, especially when purportedly backed up by Buchanan, but I believe her denial and explanation. Then again, I'm constantly reminded what a naive liberal I am.
As it turns out, though, that appears not to be the case. Which is just as well, in so many ways.
What's so bad about naive liberals? Our country was founded by them.
And so forth.
I don't get why you refer to this small town as a "nothing" town, and a "one-moose town"?
Because it's small? Have you visited and found the place not to your liking?
Or does elitism know no partisan boundaries?
Really, I do hope you'll return to the thread and answer... If even some of your fellow "chosen" deign to live in Alaska, and some surely in small towns, why are you being so condescending to all those who live in small towns?
If it was supposed to be a silly joke, um, it fell short. If you seriously are that stuck up, how sad for you.
In context I read "nothing" as meaning "in and of itself politically inconsequential." I disagree with many if not most of David's conclusions about this story, but you're being pretty thin skinned to read that one word as a commentary on small town Alaska.
Hmmm. She served on a 527 for Ted Stevens, took the federal money for the Bridge to Nowhere and kept it, talking out of both sides of her mouth. She left the town of Wasilla $20 million in debt when leaving office. She hired washington lobbyists (one who worked with Jack Abramoff) to bring home the pork while in Wasilla. She fired the town sheriff and librarian because they didn't "support" her enough.
Yeah. uh-huh. Real good at fighting corruption - when it isn't buttering her bread.
Sorry, but I don't think my "thin skin" is the issue here. It's wasn't the one word slip either...
"civic booster mayor of nothing town will wear the campaign button of anyone who is willing to waste their time coming to said nothing town