Bill Kristol should go and here's why. He's a fraud as a conservative intellectual.
He was at worst the head cheerleader and master strategist behind the Sarah Palin disaster (making him 0 for 2 on Veep blockbusters, the first disaster being Dan Quayle) and at best her principal facilitator in the media (sorry Fred Barnes). Personal agendas should take a deep backseat to ideas if one is to be a thought leader, and Kristol uses his celebrity and his NYT platform primarily to advance his own standing. Good riddance. Keep David Brooks.
God forbid we read an opinion that disagree with ours!
These results aren't surprising at all, given the closed-minded intolerance of the left, which permeates Fishbowl NY readership, and is exemplified by Ross' comment. Sarah Palin a disaster? She gave McCain most of the support he was able to muster and was a political success - no surprise given her phenomenal successes and popularity in Alaska. But a closed-minded liberal wouldn't see that; he or she would just see views he or she disagreed with and close down all cognitive processes.
I often read opinions that disagree with mine, but Kristol is a fraud and an intellectual lightweight. Sometimes I think that the New York Times hired him (and the Boston Globe continues to publish the even more ridiculous Jeff Jacoby) as part of a conspiracy to make Republicans look like utter fools.
It reminds me of the great line from the first Back to the Future movie when Christopher Lloyd finds out Ronald Reagan becomes president in the 1980s. "And who is vice president, Howdy Doody?" Anyone who holds up Kristol as some great intellectual should be laughed out of town.
On top of everything else, Kristol is first and foremost a coward. He never served his country and yet cheerleads for war after war. If he had any character at all, he would hide in shame.
The problem with Kristol is that he obviously put no time and less thought into writing his column.
The Times has a higher standard than "phoning it in." And that, unfortunately, is what Kristol did time after time.
The space is too important to give it to someone who isn't even trying.
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