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O Mighty Kristol!

Filed under: US Elections

The Weekly Standard's William Kristol's first op-ed column has exploded like a thermonuclear device within the ivory tower of the nation's Paper of Wretched.

Get this: He not only quotes Michelle Malkin, he identifies her as "the conservative writer" -- not "the blogger." With one genuinely amazing sentence, the ivory tower shatters and crumbles into dust.

How's this for an opening paragraph: "Thank you, Senator Obama. You've defeated Senator Clinton in Iowa. It looks as if you're about to beat her in New Hampshire. There will be no Clinton Restoration. A nation turns its grateful eyes to you."

Wow! We're not worthy! Be still my heart! Click through to read the rest of this thrilling ode to America, and consider the possibility of Obama (totally bereft of executive credentials and bearing a name that rhymes with Osama) running against a former governor like Huckabee (but the governor of Arkansas can't be elected president, right?) or a former mayor like Giuliani. Suddenly, the Republicans look like a pretty good bet.

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Comments

JoseyWales says:

I think Clinton would be easier to beat than Obama, but I'd rather not take that chance.

Hope NH destroys the Clintons tomorrow and the nation will indeed be very grateful.

Aris Katsaris says:

Among the Republicans only McCain has the slightest chance of defeating Obama. All the other choices have too many conservatives opposed to them (e.g. Guilliani for his abortion stance, Huckabee for his big-government attitude, Romney for being a Mormon) and there's not a single liberal that would prefer any of them to Obama.

McCain can play the age-and-experience card on the other hand, his stance against torture appealed even to liberals like me, and am not aware of any single issue that drives conservatives against him (may be forgetting something of course).

If Obama gets the Democratic nomination (as now seems likely) only McCain will be able to stand against him.

Btw, since you like this "former " statistical analysis, has *any* mayor ever been elected president, before, without first achieving a gubernatorial or congressional (or vice-presidential ofcourse) position? Am not aware of any such, but may be forgetting someone again, of course.

Bishop says:

You left out Thompson who has yet to be gauged in a state that doesn't lean left or exist in the far north; wait for the SC caucus before you write him off.

Conservatives will not give the nod to McCain because he is a RINO and has shown it on far too many occasions. You will notice that he has made it a strict point to not mention 'McCain-Feingold'.

Obama is a tyro and a tyrant and he would be shaken like a terrier-toy by Thompson. Populist demagoguery won't go very far once his views on the substantive issues have to be dissected.

Aris Katsaris says:

I've not studied much of Thompson myself, but my understanding from comments I've read in the blogosphere is that Thompson is seen as "unmotivated", and that thus he can't inspire.

If that's indeed the case, I wouldn't believe he has a chance against Obama.

Artfldgr says:

thompson is one of the few who could sweep things, except that not one leftist place includes him.

he is totally being left out of all reporting. read the articles, or watch news snaps on iowa... nothing...

they report everyone but him...

why?

he has values... old fashioned values... and that would sweep, if people started to hear, so they dont hear. fox 5 never mentions him... lots of hillary and obama... a but of rudy...

the left socialists/communists HATE thompson... they tried to slime him... no go... they went after all his ex girlfriends... all love him... they looked at his kids... none of them fruitbats.. they looked at experience, wow hillary zip, obama more than zip...

the best they can do is just not play with him so reports of their people dont bring him up... dont report him... etc...

anyway..

did anyone catch that he was quoting the song mrs robinson?

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio,
Our nation turns it's lonely eyes to you.

What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson.
Jotting Joe has left and gone away,
Hey hey hey.

Smarty says:

I think most of the GOP running could beat any of the dems running. The MSM is trying to scare us into thinking we have to compromise in the primaries, when the fact is we can kick their butts with almost anyone. So let's send Thompson fwd. The Iowa born-again populist morons voted for their daddy, and the open-primaries in NH will select McCain. Neither state has anything to do with the GOP base. Thompson can take the south, and from where I sit, the rocky mountain region, pretty easy.

Smarty says:

Aris, you did not read that in the blogoshere, you saw it on the MSM. If you read it online, it was from someone who gets their talking points from them. Politico, or even Huffpo?

I call shenanigans on both of your posts. You are a plant, even if just self-planted

Achillea says:

not aware of any single issue that drives conservatives against [McCain] (may be forgetting something of course).

Two things, off the top of my head, immigration and the misbegotten 'campaign finance reform.'

John Blake says:

Huckabee is a Pat Buchanan/Ross Perot figure, due to fade after Florida in February. Giuliani and McCain carry too much baggage nationwide, Romney remains but marginally acceptable. As seasons turn, that leaves Fred Thompson, coincidentally the only principled ideational conservative, as last-man-standing at Convention time.

Odds are that Democrats will endorse Obama, trotting out their spurious race-cards. But suppose Thompson trumps BHO with Bobby Jindal, a "born again" first-generation American from deep-South Baton Rouge: Rhodes Scholar, proven State administrator, ex-Congressman now Governor "dark enough" to pre-empt BHO race hustlers from Day One?

Debating Thompson, Obama might utter a squeak or two before the tomcat's pounce. Jindal vs. (say) John Kerrey (not the poseur of 2004, but he who called Clinton "an unusually good liar") would redound entirely to Jindal's credit. And what would your standard-issue kook-fringe Dems do then, poor things?

Quite likely, today's Reid/Pelosi Copperheads would not coil again until 2024 at earliest. By then, the extraordinarily dysfunctional Boomer generation (1946 - 1964) will be dead and gone. Can't happen soon enough.

Aris Katsaris says:

"Aris, you did not read that in the blogoshere, you saw it on the MSM."

It's considered rude to call other people liars without evidence -- and btw, how am I supposed to be seeing it on American MSM, when I live in Greece?

"If you read it online, it was from someone who gets their talking points from them. Politico, or even Huffpo?"

If you really interested in such details, then I have to say I read a reference to a "The person who kind of wants to be president but doesn't want to do any of the work required to actually get the office" in Orson Scott Card's latest hatrack.com essay (http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2007-12-23.shtml)

At the time wasn't sure who he was referring to, but both my inquiry in the forums, and a google search for "lazy campaign primaries" indicated accusations of laziness/lack-of-motivation concerned Thompson.

John says:

What's the difference between a writer and a blogger?

Demosthenes says:

Wow, your little blurb was almost as inane as Kristol's.

As usual, his efforts at prognostication were sorely lacking - and as a bonus he misattributed the only quote in the piece.

Obviously there is a new sheriff in town at the NY Times.

Charlie says:

Kim, a technical note: I'm afraid the Malkin quote in Kristol's column is misattributed to her. It was actually spoken by Michael Medved.

The error has since been corrected in the online edition, though I don't know if the mistake showed up in the print edition.

Your point is taken, however: MSM types tend to use the word "blogger" as an epithet rather than a simple descriptive, despite the fact that a hefty chunk of their news is generated and disseminated by the bloggers.

In closing: for what it's worth, it's way too early to write off Fred Thompson, who could calmly, politely, and very efficiently grind any of the Democrats' frontrunners into a delicious five-alarm chili.

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