Imagine my horror when I agreed with Pat Buchanan.

[forest444]

22. Seeing Buchanan's name (which, luckily, rarely happens anymore) always reminds me of this:

it's not really related to this discussion, but bear with me.

Many on DU no doubt remember that the other beneficiary of the butterfly ballots at the heart of the Bush v. Gore debacle was one other than our buddy Pat, because the line from Gore's name pointed straight to the hole you'd punch to vote for Buchanan. Buchanan, you'll recall had done surprisingly well in South Florida's majority-Jewish precincts - especially given the recent flap over his comments to the effect that Hitler "was misunderstood and underrated."

During the subsequent coverage on msnbc, a group of senior citizens from a Miami-area nursing home were on hand to relate how they inadvertently voted for the Libertarian also-ran, only realizing this while watching the news in the following days. I'll never forget the anecdote shared by one lady in particular:

I lived in Germany when the Nazis were in power. I was taken to Dachau with the rest of my family, as were all my neighbors and friends; and I never saw them again. Do you think I would vote for Pat Buchanan!!?

Like most other Democrats, I laughed, yelled, sneered, and scowled at the news coverage during the whole mess.

That was the only time I cried.