Bill Kristol’s Monday column in the New York Times is the gift that keeps on giving.
Normally, I take a few minutes to address his follies. That won’t be necessary today.
His column, “G.O.P. Dog Days?” today was so, let’s say, “evocative” that as of early afternoon it had prompted 653 readers’ comments in the Times’ on-line “comments” section. Needless to say, the vast majority negative. And needless to say that the comments themselves were more interesting and revealing than Kristol’s column
As one reader puts it:
Actually, I’d like to echo/paraphrase another commenter’s recent observation: there is value in having Kristol’s column in the Times.
Reading the column? Not so much. Well, actually, not at all.
Reading the comments? Absolutely.
Normally, if one happens upon Kristol or his ilk – mostly by accident – while channel surfing, all one can do is yell one’s disgust, alone, at an inanimate object.
At least when one reads Kristol’s column here, there is the chance to join a larger community of like minded souls, expressing their disgust, en masse – and the feedback at least lets one know that their outrage is shared by others.
So, today I would like to just quote some of the readers’ comments. There are so many—so many good ones—that it was almost impossible to select just a few. If you would like to continue the fun, please go to the New York Times “Comments” section.
The following are some selected comments, starting with one about Kristol’s paltry remarks on Obama’s observations about selecting a puppy for his kids:
Bill Kristol: “(If one were being churlish, one might say that it was typical of a liberal to promise the dog before delivering it. A results-oriented conservative would simply have shown up with the puppy without the advance hype.)”
A reader: “No. A conservative would have unfurled a banner declaring “Puppy Mission Accomplished.” Shortly thereafter, it would be revealed that the puppy was actually a cat and it had been run down by a car and replaced by a stuffed lion that had been made in China out of dangerously inflammable materials.”
Here are the rest:
Only a conservative like Kristol could turn a puppy into pure political kitsch. Sometimes a puppy is just a puppy.
Why must you turn this into a contest, Mr. Kristol? Does the (D) following Obama’s name truly mean that much to you? Perhaps this time, we could all place country before party and support good policy and oppose bad policy and not worry so much about whether it’s Republicans or Democrats who are behind it. Is country before party such a difficult concept for you to accept?
Mr. Kristol,The elections are over. Period. But it seems you continue to see this country in a perpetually polarized way: either “GOP-or-not-GOP”; “conservative-or-not-conservative”; “American-or-not-American”, etc. Again, the elections are over.
Is there anything more pathetic than the wandering arch-conservative just now? Full of angst, naval-gazing, plotting a comeback before the swearing-in ceremony and confirming with every written word the wisdom of the American electorate in dumping them. Floundering over a defeated ideology exceeded only by its inept execution. Clutching at any half-baked rationale that excuses their seismic losses while eagerly anticipating the first chance to take back what they squandered.
No matter how you spin it Bill this country has moved to the left.Your party can only win by division,and tired trickle down economics.Still waiting to trickle down my way,been waiting 28 years!
Bill, You still don’t get it–you are still more concerned about ideology and partisan politics than you are about the state of the Union, which is incredibly threatened
You were, in effect, handed the keys to a flaming hot economy, fresh from the car-wash with the scent of Fabreze still present in the upholstery. Eight years later there are no hubcaps, the top is shredded, the spare is missing, there are beer bottles in the headliner, and the engine is missing 3/8 of the plug wires. You and your irresponsible friends are now plotting ways to break into Mr. Obama’s workshop where he’s trying to undo your damage and hotwire it for another free-ride? I think you should head down to the bus stop and stand there and hope someone feels sorry enough for you to give you a quarter so you can take the bus, cuz your days of driving are over.
I think Kristol betrays the old politics of the Bush generation of Republicans. It’s a farce to call these people conservatives on either economic issues, foreign policy, or minimal government. They are REPUBLICANS, a party cobbled together for the sole purpose of winning elections. I look forward to the conservative movement rising from the ashes, shorn of the religious right and rabid, knee-jerk capitalism. It’s not that I’m a conservative, but I think that honest debate about society is a good thing–like the Firing Line dialogues. That being said, I doubt whether the Republican Party can recover from its intellectual corruption and we’ll have to look for conservative voices elsewhere.
After all these months, sir, you still haven’t figured out Obama. He is not an ideological firebrand, but a pragmatic incrementalist with liberal sensibilities. You remark that America “remains” a center-right country, but it’s the “center” part which is the critical paradigm. Americans care not one bit whether the economic approach is called “supply side” or “Keynesian,” they only care about what works. The Bush Administration never quite grasped that notion. It, with your helpful cheerleading, pursued a radical right agenda without regard to results — which limited its options when neither its economic nor foreign policy proved effective. There’s no telling how successful Obama’s presidency will be, but it’s doubtful he will stubbornly stick to the same policies if they don’t produce improvements.
Mr. Kristol, What a lesson in rationalizations. Sounds like a prize fighter after having been decisively knocked out… “oh well, at least some of my ribs aren’t broken.”
Mr. Obama hasn’t even taken his seat in the Oval Office yet. Where the country will be in 1 year, not to mention 4, is truly unknowable. It would appear that American voters have finally understood that intransigent political ideology leads to personal misery. And may their new found wisdom protect us from another wave of Gringrich-youth brown shirts in the US Congress.
At last, I can once again see America from my house…. 🙂
Wow…what a crafty writer Kristol is…or thinks he is. Pity that people like him are so blinded and just seem incapable of getting it. As long as they have these attitudes…looking down from their perfect perches as they are…well, we’ll never have to worry. The train has left the station…they just don’t know it.
Perhaps Mr. Kristol should take some responsibility for the republican rout by his promoting of Gov. Palin for the V.P. nomination. The American people were offended by her lack of qualification and the GOP’s mindless pandering to the common citizen assumed to be mindless. Common sense prevailed.
If the GOP wants to win elections they should stop trying to out-puppy Barack Obama and come up with some policy proposals that make the slightest bit of sense. Tito the builder, drill baby drill, Bill Ayers, no time to experiment with socialism, and not knowing if Africa is a country or a continent lost Republicans this election. Maybe Obama will be good for conservatives by improving the country they’re in?
Mr. Kristol-Even though you have been dead wrong on every single one of your predictions for the last few years, I see you’re still trying to be Nostradamus. Today you’re predicting a good time for conservatives, less than a week after Obama completed W’s destruction of the Republican Party. I’m betting it’s going to be a bad two years for conservatives leading up to another losing election and two worse years after that.
You can take that to the bank. If you can find one that’s still open.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.