I was a fan of Pat Buchanan’s for a few months. But it gradually became more and more evident that he was a nut case. In fact, I first began getting the clue when I had lunch with an associate editor of First Things around the time of the New Hampshire primary. I learned that they had looked at Pat. They were troubled by the accusations of antisemitism and went to their Jewish connections, who are not ADL types but sensible conservatives who work with Catholics and Protestants toward restoring religion in the public square. Not one of them was willing to support Pat, and it turned out that they were right.
I don’t think that can be said of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and James Dobson in their comments about McCain. They are NOT nut cases, although occasionally they can go astray (but Rush does so very seldom). What they have said about McCain, however, happens to be true.
If anyone is a nutcase here on the order of Pat Buchanan, it is McCain.
On the plus side, if McCain is the candidate, win or lose, we've got an open field in 2012. McCain would be 76 by then, and he is NOT in the same shape that Reagan was at his age.
My first clue about Buchanan's anti-semitism was when he started talking about the middle East. Although he couched his arguments in terms of isolationism, it was obvious there were unstated reasons, and those reasons turned out to be problems with Israel, and that the problems went beyond politics.
“...I was a fan of Pat Buchanan’s for a few months. But it gradually became more and more evident that he was a nut case. In fact, I first began getting the clue when I had lunch with an associate editor of First Things around the time of the New Hampshire primary....”
Pat Buchanan is not a nut case.
It is true that he shares an anti-Israel bias that is actually commonly found among paleos of a certain age.
I grew up with such people and always split with them on the Israel matter.
But Pat is otherwise a brilliant guy who cares deeply about his country and has worked tirelessly for conservative causes including for Ronald Reagan.
He’s NOT anti-Semetic; he’s anti-Israel, which is quite a different thing. I do NOT agree with anything he says about Israel or our important relationship with them.
But this is just one matter among hundreds and on most of the others if not all he is brilliant and thought-provoking.
Of course he had no business running for president but that’s less his fault than it is the fault of our miserable electoral process that freezes out thinking people.
Whether they know it or not, today’s generation of conservatives owe Pat a lot for keeping the faith through many rough years and times.
Leave it to someone from the media to “convince” you that one of our best minds is a “nut case.” I worked most of my life in the media too. And Pat Buchanan has my complete respect except for a single issue. (And I wish I could say THAT about anyone running for president right now.)
I love the charges of anti-Semitism. I stopped listening when I heard many Jewish groups declaring the Gospels "anti-Semitic". When beating a dogma, I guess any stigma will do.