Palin supported Pat Buchanan in 2000

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Now I feel really guilty about having liked her. Ethics reform can come along just fine from either McCain or Obama without some kooky VP.

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Also:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/Palin_on_Israel.html?showall

Well, Buchanan certainly wasn't going to play well in Florida. The question is whether the specter of Buchanan actually becomes a salient feature of the election there.

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The article is from 1999. Didn't Buchannan start out running for the GOP nomination (again) in 2000? I'm sure she ended up supporting Bush when Buchannan left the party. Again, this doesn't mean she suddenly stopped liking Buchannan.

That makes it worse, if possible. It means she supported the absolute looniest of the loony for the Republican nomination (well, not quite LaRouche level), but was too partisan to support him when he left the party.

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Well, Buchanan certainly wasn't going to play well in Florida.

he did play almost suspiciously well in Palm Beach in 2000.  any theories on that?

The butterfly ballot. This is well-established. A lot of people intending to vote for Gore voted for Buchanan by accident because Gore's name was above the bubble for Buchanan. It wasn't part of the argument that Bush "stole" the election since it was just voter confusion, but it definitely added to the whole idea that Gore "should have" won.