William Kristol Grasps at Straws

In today's New York Times (9/29/08), William Kristol writes a provocative article titled "How McCain Wins". The fix for McCain's obviously-faltering campaign is simple: jettison the advisers who are restraining you from attacking Obama. Fire the handlers who have been holding back Sarah Palin. Go on the offensive. Attack, Attack, Attack!

To William Kristol that means naming names: Obama is a "liberal" and Obama used to praise Reverend Wright. That's it. No policy discussion. No laying out of coherent corrections of the Bush Administration's failures or a clear articulation of McCain's policies compared with Obama's.

Unlike his conservative colleagues, David Brooks and George F. Will, William Kristol still regards Sarah Palin as an asset. If he argues that Palin has been held back by fuzzy-thinking handlers, then he still believes she is a force to be reckoned with. She is as first advertised: confident, qualified, politically astute.

Both McCain and Palin, according to Kristol, need to be unleashed. But that doesn't mean set free to constructively debate the important issues of the day. No. All Kristol wants is ad hominen vitriol. Bluster, unsubstantiated accusation, labeling, smearing....

The truth is talking about Kristol isn't worth the effort. He clearly can't argue policy issues any better than the candidates he supports. And, in truth, in the last 8 years, William Kristol has been wrong about virtually every issue he spoke out about.

So who cares what William Kristol thinks? He's obviously as irrelevant to what the country needs as is John McCain.