Palin Quoted Anti-Semite In Convention Speech

Wall Street Journal:

Thomas Frank writes in the Wall Street Journal:

It tells us something about Sarah Palin's homage to small-town America, delivered to an enthusiastic GOP convention last week, that she chose to fire it up with an unsourced quotation from the all-time champion of fake populism, the belligerent right-wing columnist Westbrook Pegler.

"We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity," the vice-presidential candidate said, quoting an anonymous "writer," which is to say, Pegler, who must have penned that mellifluous line when not writing his more controversial stuff. As the New York Times pointed out in its obituary of him in 1969, Pegler once lamented that a would-be assassin "hit the wrong man" when gunning for Franklin Roosevelt.

The Politico's Ben Smith notes that, beyond supporting FDR's assassination, Pegler was an anti-Semite:

He was also known for what Philip Roth described as his "casual distaste for Jews," which had become so evident by the end that he was bounced from the journal of the John Birch Society in 1964 for alleged anti-semitism. According to his obituary, he'd advanced the theory that American Jews of Eastern European descent were "instinctively sympathetic to Communism, however outwardly respectable they appeared."

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[Jimjn2]

Lies? Untruths? There have been more lies and half truths spewed by you Palin haters in two weeks than I have seen or heard in years.

Try to find some dirt, any dirt on Sarah Palin or family and if you can't, over exaggerate, distort the facts, use innuendo and substitute unsubstantiated rumors and unverified claims for truth and if you can't do that? Just make something up.

So many people Dems and/or liberals want Pailn to be guilty of something, anything. You should scrutinize your own candidates like this too and see what you would find.

But the usually silent republicans and independents too are not buying all the overblown hype anymore from the obvious liberal, one-sided news media and bloggers too.

What about Obama's close Minster friend and his church preaching hate and racism for years and years? You are down on Palin and ok with all that?

I bet you are the same ones who backed John Edwards and also Bill Clinton when he was cheating on his wife in the White House and then lied to the public (and also technically broke the law too). At least Pailn did not.

And how about Hillary Clinton when all the those missing FBI files showed up in her office and she said she had "no idea they were there or how the got there." Sure, 300 files are such a small and easy thing to miss in your own office,,,, NOT!

What hypocrites you are.

[RRundbaken]

Let me just add that these little side issues Republicans keep dredging up (that's why they wanted Clinton on the ticket, so they could raise millions and attack her) are there because they cannot speak on the issues.

Everything we are seeing happen today is a result of Republican legislation. China spends almost 10% of it's revenue on infrastructure. The U.S.? Less than 2%. But we can give oil companies and the wealthiest the largest tax breaks in history. The middle class got squat.

The only reason McCain has the nomination is because the GOP fielded the very worst bunch of candidates. And we got to see them in their glory at that awful convention. What a mean spirited affair. A sea of white faces ridiculing all the people who work in their communities. They all stood their saying they have to change broken Washington when it was them who broke it.

And for the first time in history the sitting president and vice president did not appear. What a sad commentary that is. You can't vote with the ruling party over 90% of the time over the last 8 years and then say you are a maverick and represent change. McCain's policies are identical to Bush and in some case worse. That's not a maverick, that's a sidekick, Republicans count on everyone to be so stupid, and that's why I despise them. They are hypocrites who can't govern.

[greenlightwilly]

Why so much ANGER, Jimjn2? You should take some time and explore these feelings.

[aliyaga]

P.S.- when do the debates start? I can't wait to watch Biden vs. Palin.

[aliyaga]

Great point , fistbump. Everyone needs to quell their outrage and horror towards Palin and her views/theories and focus on something substantive regarding the campaign. Democrats Are playing right into repubs' greasy amoral hands and they will be laughing all the way into the oval office.

[NJmikeV]

I'm tired of this "small town" crap. People in my town are Black, White Asian, Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist. And guess what? We all have kids on the soccer team. We get along.
I live in the shadow of NYC and people here want what everyone wants -- safe neighborhoods, good schools, a decent job and the freedom to go to our church temple mosque synagogue without being harassed by bigots or intrusive governments.

Small town my a**. I'm from New Jersey-- land of high median incomes and high SAT scores. Gotta problem with that?

[fistbump]

ENOUGH!!! ENOUGH about Palin. She is a distraction. The Repubs want us talking about her instead of attacking them about the Economy. They can defend her, but they can't defend the tanking ECONOMY. Attacking her will not get us more votes, talking about the ECONOMY will!!!!

Stop obsessing about Palin. Do you see the Repubs attacking Biden? No, because it's a stupid strategy.

The press will bring down Palin, or they won't. We need to focus on McCain and the issues. Keep it about the issues and they LOSE!!

[happycat]

You are absolutely right. Whenever you turn on the news these days, regardless of which network you watch, all you see are the "Lipstick on a Pig" comments and Palin saying, "thanks, but no thanks." Where does McCain stand on the issues? He needs to start answering those questions. He is running for President of the U.S., not for the Mr. Congeniality award. Forget about Palin as she is merely a distraction. It is McCain who needs to start talking about the issues again.

[deliriousgod]

I was intially inclined to give Palin a pass on this gaffe. I reasoned that people often quote figures without necessarily knowing or agreeing with everything they were about, but I have reconsidered overnight. I realised that if I were making a speech of this magnitude, I would only be quoting remarks from figures whose thinking I was intimately acquainted with. Someone might thrust a generic speech in front of me, I might read it verbatim, but my only personal addition would not be a flippant remark comparing myself to a creature of dubious temperment and generalise to speak for all motherhood in this regard. I would certainly insist that any direct quotes I made were from sources which were my own formative influences. Maybe that is what she did.

[DaOne]

Sarah Palin? Thanks but no thanks!

[neo1]

ENOUGH LIES!

The masses have not yet awakened to the fact that LIES mean something. Most people don't give a lie the weight it deserves and that means they have depleted their moral values to just about zero.

We have to wake up and realize our government should NOT be telling us lies. If we wish to accept lies from our family, friends, or kids, that's our prerogative. But NO ONE should accept a lie from ANYBODY who has power over us because they are showing they have no interest in us by doing so.

LIES should be the ultimate NO to those who present them to us. We should say NO, NOT THIS TIME, TELL US THE TRUTH and stop giving them our approval and applause. LIARS are thieves chipping away at our moral compass piece by piece, until it gets to the point when they are acceptable without fear. That's when we have, in essence, lost our soul.

We cannot any longer give up what we know in our hearts and minds is right. We must protect our souls better than we have been doing and say NO, that's not right. I refuse to listen to you any more. Stop listening and take action. That's the only way to change America to what she should really be.

[optech007]

"If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from."-B. Obama

[WillCooney]

Charlie Crist was so devastated by McCain's rejection that he rushed into his boyfriend's arms and sobbed for days!

[JCane526]

As a Floridian, I approve of this comment.

Can we start a pool on how long he will go before his 'engagement' is called off?

[happycat]

I'm a New Yorker, but I would really like in on the pool too. That engagement is such a sham!

[TruepatriotinRI]

Aren't all Nazis anti-Semites?

[nikky]

WELL LET'S SEE IF THEY THIS I THINK THE BUSH CLAN WILL THEY THINK LIKE SHE DO

[SouthpawSass]

Let's get real here, is this seriously something that's going to get our Democratic base up in arms and rally us in protest? We Americans have enough to rally us without using the Republican tactic of faux outrage. We're going to lose the election people in a year that should have been ours! Let's get our **** together. Wake up!

[NYC07]

No it won't get the base up in arms But , I know many a Jewish New Yorker who now lives in Florida who Will be really mad !!!

[metalpipe]

Hate, violence, and social cleansing: this is the underlying themes to every thought that swims around in a neo-conservatives head.

Even after Obama takes the White House, I will have to live with the newfound knowlege that nearly half of the people I meet may think this way. It literally makes me ill.

[Groenhagen]

Well, at least she did not sit in an anti-Semite's church for 20 years like Obama did.

[jupitor]

let's take 40sec bites of your pastor and see what he said----------Or more of hagee! If mccain some how becomes prez -It's be me an thousands God Da@@@ America!

[1099]

This 40 sec soundbite defense of Rev. Wright's comments is total BS and has been since the first reports of his controversial comments. Many of the things he said about 9/11 and this country were reprehensible regardless of the context in which they were delivered. Obama seems like a smart guy so the fact that he was so closely associated with Wright calls his judgment into question whether he likes it or not. That is the way of the world. Also, if my priest, rabbi, pastor, etc. said any of the things that Wright did I would not have hung around to hear any more.

[odoreida]

Also, she didn't participate or lend her name to a "Million Man March" that was run by the biggest antisemite alive today.

[ToSense]

Well, at least she did quote an anti-Semite in her convention acceptance speech. She did try to have books removed from a public library. She did support the infamous "bridge to nowhere." Obviously, if you are going to blind yourself to the scrutiny of a candidate running for the second highest office in our land, there is little room for dialog. Our biases will of course influence how and for whom we will vote. But to try and reduce all the varied and monumental issues which should be forming the basis for debate in this national election to some highly debatable argument about making Obama anti-semitic by association, is not only sad but anti-democratic. Fascists stifle public debate and campaign on narrow, inflammatory platforms. Just thought youwouldn't mind being educated that you are at risk of being guilty by association if you vote for Palin: a candidate who cited a known fascist and anti-Semite
in her first formal and public address to her constituents and the nation. I'm sure the speech was written fro her and she can claim ignorance. That would be a fitting defense.

[laragale]

Thank YOU - am sitting here thinking...hmmm none of these earmarks seem to benefit big oil or other big money....nutrition programs - My GOD - Obama and Biden should be ASHAMED of themselves!