McCain abandons the jewish vote

McCain has picked a relatively unknown for his veep, Sarah Palin. Due to her relative newness on the national scene, there is very little known about her, other than her strong beliefs in guns and Jesus, and frightening lack of belief in global warming. These should be enough to unite most people from center-right to far left against McCain, but i believe that it will have the effect of pushing an unexpected swing voter against McCain. Before I discuss Palin however, lets go criticize Barak Obama
Barak Obama has had a lot of trouble shoring up the traditionally liberal Jewish geriatric vote. This has been due to a mix of his links to Reverend Wright's neo-activist anti-Israel stance, the false links to the Muslim community, and questions about the origins of his Israel policy (one of his top advisers on the subject of the middle east supported the authors responsible for the book "The Israel Lobby", a controvertial book against the American Israel lobby). Furthermore, McCain's apparent pro-Israel stance, combined with his close friendship to senator Lieberman, the darling of Jews over 50, has put this key group of voters on the light red category. While most states with a significant Jewish population, such as New York and California, are dark blue, Florida, a state with over 750 000, mostly elderly, Jews has been a key battleground state since 2000.
So now we get to Sarah Palin, who it was recently revealed was a supporter of Pat Buchanan. A recently found 1999 AP article linking her to Buchanan's ill fated far right independent presidential campaigns reported

"Pat Buchanan brought his conservative message of a smaller government and an America First foreign policy to Fairbanks and Wasilla on Friday as he continued a campaign swing through Alaska. Buchanan's strong message championing states rights resonated with the roughly 85 people gathered for an Interior Republican luncheon in Fairbanks. … Among those sporting Buchanan buttons were Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin and state Sen. Jerry Ward, R-Anchorage."

Now, Pat Buchanan is not what one would call an open minded enlightened individual. A better description of him would be a closed minded fear mongering bigot. He has publicly dismissed the deaths of thousands of Jews at Treblinka due to monoxide poisoning saying "Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill anybody" (New Republic, 10/22/90). Furthermore Mr. Buchanan was crafted with crafting President Reagans infamous soundbite that the SS soldiers buried at Bitburg were "victims just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps." (New York Times, 5/16/85; New Republic, 1/22/96). Ironically, Buchanan's view of the Israel lobby is the same as the fringe left as The Israel Lobby's authors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt when he referred to Washington DC as "Israel occupied territory" (St. Louis Post Dispatch, 10/20/90). His record of anti-semitism has earned him his own quotes page on the Anti-Definition League's website.
Her endorsement of Buchanan has worried many due to his links to anti-semitism raising suspicion of her own beliefs. I dont believe she subscribes to any belifes that extreme despite evidence to the contrary. Even still, this shows that the issue of anti-semitism is not one that she finds important and the selection of her that this brings into question about the real priorities of John McCain. By selecting a Buchananite he is blatantly saying that the Jewish vote does not matter, and that despite his rhetoric, the security of the state of Israel is not one of his priorities. If the Obama campaign brings light to Palin's anti-semitic links, and McCain's apparent indifference towards them, this could easily swing the elderly Jewish vote of Florida, swinging the state back to blue.
Earlier on I mentioned Obama's policy link to the authors of The Israel Lobby, a book which he took an aggressive stance against himself. This view is now linked to the McCain campaign through Governor Palin's support of Buchanan. I believe we must see a serious apology from the Governor for her endorsement of Pat Buchanan, as well as receive an outline of her support for democracy in the middle east, recognition of the horrors of the Holocaust, and refutation of all of Buchanan's other bigoted and extreme beliefs.