PrintSeptember 2, 2008
More on Palin, Buchanan and the Jewish Vote
This Palin is anti-Israel smear campaign from Rep. Robert Wexler actually began just hours after Friday's Veep announcement, when The Nation's Christopher Hayes dusted off a nearly decade old AP story naming then Wasilla Alaska Mayor Sarah Palin among those wearing Buchanan buttons at a Fairbanks campaign luncheon in 1999. That astounding revelation alone, suggested Hayes, proved that Palin once supported Buchanan's "hard-right, fringe [campaign] for president."
Hayes later updated the piece with an admission that McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb had responded that Palin:
"wore the button as a courtesy to Mr. Buchanan, and in an effort to make him feel welcome during his visit, but immediately sent a letter to the editor of her local paper clarifying that the button should not have been interpreted as an endorsement of any kind."
In fact, Palin supported not Buchanan; not even John McCain, but rather Steve Forbes in 2000.
But Obama loyalists smelled an opportunity to exploit the anti-Semitic image of Pat Buchanan -- an image the Left had fueled through the years with words as often despicable as Wexler's -- to shore up their candidate's uncertain approval among potential Jewish voters. Granted no one would ever confuse Buchanan with Joe Lieberman, but a "Nazi sympathizer" and "a man who embodies vitriolic anti-Israel sentiments?"
On Tuesday morning's Morning Joe, Mike Barnicle -- no right winger in anyone's book -- called the statement "an indictment of whatever education Congressman Wexler received." And Mark Bubriski's regurgitation of Wexler's vile gibberish prompted the show's host former Congressman Joe Scarborough to call the Obama spokesman a "jackass" and a "pathetic human being."
Even Obama groupie Mika Brzezinski cleared the fairy-dust from her eyes long enough to denounce the rumor-mongering about and catty personal attacks upon the Alaskan governor.
Given MSNBC's penchant for compiling perhaps Obama's loudest cable cheering section, this group revulsion to the latest tactics of their hero's campaign machine bodes quite well indeed.
While the MSM dismisses Sarah's escalation as a "Hail-Mary pass," the truth remains that four days later, the opposition is still fumbling for an effective defense to McCain's risky but inspired play.
I suspect that her Wednesday night RNC speech will both neutralize much of the noxious scuttlebutt and add to the disorder in the opposite camp.
