About | RSS

TPM LiveWire

Palin Advocates War With Iran After Apparently Misunderstanding Buchanan Column (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | February 9, 2010, 10:07AM

Spread the word and support this article. Share it on Digg!

Sarah Palin addresses the Tea Party Convention Feb. 6.

2012, Chris Wallace, FOX, Iran, Obama Administration, Pat Buchanan, Sarah Palin

Send to a friend!

Citing a column by Pat Buchanan that clearly argues against conflict with Iran, Sarah Palin on Sunday suggested that a war with Iran would be good policy and a boon for President Obama's 2012 reelection hopes.

Buchanan's column, "Will Obama Play The War Card?" was a rebuttal of Daniel Pipes call last week for Obama to bomb Iran to save his presidency. "Will Obama cynically yield to temptation, play the war card and make 'conservatives swoon,' in Pipes' phrase, to save himself and his party?" Buchanan writes.

Buchanan, a longtime anti-interventionist, comes out against more sanctions, arguing that "the families of the sick, the old, the weak, the women and the children who die are unlikely to feel gratitude toward those who killed them." He says the prospects of Iran developing a nuclear bomb are much overstated.

But during an interview with Fox's Chris Wallace in which she cited the Buchanan column, Palin spoke approvingly of the "bomb Iran" idea. Check out the key exchange (emphasis ours):

WALLACE: I know that three years is an eternity in politics. But how hard do you think President Obama will be to defeat in 2012?

PALIN: It depends on a few things. Say he played, and I got this from Buchanan, reading one of his columns the other day. Say he played the war card. Say he decided to declare war on Iran, or decided to really come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do. But that changes the dynamics in what we can assume is going to happen between now and three years. Because I think if the election were today, I do not think Obama would be re-elected.

But three years from now things could change if on the national security threat --

WALLACE: You're not suggesting that he would cynically play the war card.

PALIN: I'm not suggesting that. I'm saying, if he did, things would dramatically change if he decided to toughen up and do all that he can to secure our nation and our allies. I think people would perhaps shift their thinking a little bit and decide, well, maybe he's tougher than we think he is today. And there wouldn't be as much passion to make sure that he doesn't serve another four years --

Here's the video:

Pipes, for his part, celebrated Palin's remarks in a post at National Review.

"After vilification from the Left and tepid reactions on the Right, it's nice to have a major political figure endorse my idea," he writes. "I've always liked Palin and been mystified by the fervid hostility she engenders."

(Hat tip to Marsha Cohen for the catch.)

Late Update: Buchanan tells TPM in an e-mail that he doesn't believe Palin misread him:

When Sara Palin cited my column she was saying that if Obama played "the war card" on Iran, that would change the impression of him as a weak leader and change the election dynamic. Exactly my point. When she continued on and said "which I would like him to do," she was referring to Obama moving closer to Israel, the phrase that directly preceded it.
I would not attribute the statement "which I would like him to do" to playing the war card and going to war with Iran, which my column argued against. In her follow-up answer, she seemed to say as much. In short, I don't believe she intended to endorse Obama playing the war card; she endorsed moving closer to Israel, but conceded that playing the war card would probably make Obama appear a much more formidable leader than he appears today, and thereby strengthen, which I implied as well.

Our take: Palin's follow-up answer seems contradictory. First, she tells Wallace that she's not suggesting Obama play the war card.

But then Palin says: "If he did, things would dramatically change if he decided to toughen up and do all that he can to secure our nation and our allies." In other words, Palin is saying that war with Iran would be a sign of toughening up and doing everything possible to "secure our nation" -- presumably a goal she supports.