A few months ago I listened to an analysis of Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention speech. In it he said,

"The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into red states and blue states. Red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too: We worship an awesome God in the blue states."

It's a rather brilliant line because it says one thing to those of us who don't know the code and sends a different message to those who do. At face value, he's stating that Democrats can also be believers. Not too shocking to his Democratic listeners since 90% of people in America do believe in God. But, it turns out "awesome God" is a line from a contemporary Christian song. It tells the evangelical listeners that he shares some common ground with them.

I'm not saying he was sneaking or devious in his speech. I'm saying coded language can be very powerful.

In the debate last night, Palin mocked Biden for getting the drill chant wrong. He didn't know the code.

"Never again, never again," Palin said these words and my heart started racing. That phrase means only one thing to me. And then she said, "will we be exploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money and loaning us these dollars." And I thought, "Huh?" And then I felt offended. Because for a Jewish audience, "Never Again" refers to the Holocaust and the Holocaust only.

That Palin and her speech writers had no clue how that coded language would reverberate in the Jewish community shows just how shallow their understanding and commitment to the Jewish community is. McCain has been trying to court the Jewish vote. He probably lost some here.