Chris Hayes reports that Sarah Palin was a supporter of Pat Buchanan’s 2000 presidential bid. Quoting from a 1999 AP story:

Pat Buchanan brought his conservative message of a smaller government and an America First foreign policy to Fairbanks and Wasilla on Friday as he continued a campaign swing through Alaska. Buchanan’s strong message championing states rights resonated with the roughly 85 people gathered for an Interior Republican luncheon in Fairbanks. … Among those sporting Buchanan buttons were Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin and state Sen. Jerry Ward, R-Anchorage.

This opens up a whole cornucopeia of policy questions for Palin to answer, such as:

- Where does Gov. Palin stand on Buchanan’s strident opposition to American military interventionism, especially given John McCain’s promise of “other wars” in America’s immediate future?

- Does Gov. Palin still agree with Buchanan that “the ideology of free trade is [an] alien import, an invention of European academics and scribblers”?

- Does Gov. Palin still agree with Buchanan that Capitol Hill is “Israeli-occupied territory“?

- Does Gov. Palin still agree with Buchanan that “there is a religious war going on in our country…a cultural war as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself”? Or, like John McCain, does she just see culture war issues as things to be exploited in order to get elected?

Americans want to know!

UPDATE: On Morning Joe today, Mika Brzezinski noted that Palin was Buchanan’s Alaska state director. Watch it:

Looking at OnTheIssues.org, here’s what we find on the national security positions of John McCain’s choice for vice-president:

Sarah Palin on Foreign Policy:

No issue stance yet recorded by OnTheIssues.org.

Sarah Palin on War and Peace:

No issue stance yet recorded by OnTheIssues.org.

Sarah Palin on Homeland Security:

Promote from within, in Alaska’s National Guard. (Nov 2006)

In an attempt to bind himself to the extreme social conservative base of his party and make news with an unknown, stunt VP pick, McCain has shortchanged the issue which he himself insists is the most important — national security.

Remember — seems like years ago now, way back before the entire Iraqi government endorsed Barack Obama’s plan for Iraq — when John McCain and his flunkies were attacking Obama for having been to Iraq only once? Though she did visit Alaska National Guard troops stationed in Kuwait in 2007, Sarah Palin has apparently been to Iraq…never.

We’d like to perform Wonk Room’s mission and examine Gov. Palin’s views on foreign policy, but no record of such views appears to exist. While we appreciate that Gov. Palin’s son is preparing to deploy to Iraq, and we recognize her accomplishments in defending Alaska from Russian colonization and polar bear attacks over the last year and a half, there is as yet no evidence on the question of Palin’s approach to America’s national security.