The End of a Bad Era: Kristol Leaves the Times
By Daniel Strauss - Jan 26th, 2009 at 1:14 pmLike the end to the nightmarish presidency his column often cheer-led, Bill Kristol’s time on The New York Times editorial page is officially over. I usually don’t smile by the time I’m done reading Kristol’s column, but this week I had nothing big a big grin thanks to the following words:
This is William Kristol’s last column.
(His column, by the way, is nonsensical and watered down as usual.)
I don’t think it’s fair to call Kristol’s time on the op-ed page a total disaster. He attracted readers and attention, which is surely something newspapers, even the Times, sorely need these days. As Steve Benen points out, that was Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.’s intention. But the cost was the dignity of the Times, and in my opinion that’s too high a price to pay. People look to the Times for insight and at least sensibility–two qualities Kristol does not have.
Anyway, in Kristol’s last column he argues that Obama has to change the unpopularity of liberalism into something that will appeal to Americans and be healthy for the country (Bill, buddy, where were you the last eight years or during the 2008 election?). He then goes on to say that Obama has basically been empty words so far (”We don’t really know how Barack Obama will govern. What we have so far, mainly, is an Inaugural Address…”). Well, if closing of Guantanamo, ending torture, and working to raise vehicle carbon emissions standards are just words, then yes, Bill, Obama hasn’t been doing much. Even in your last column you are nothing if not incoherent.
Ah, parting is such sweet sorrow… most of the time. Adeiu, Mr. Kristol, I would say this has been fun and intellectually stimulating but that, like most of the content of your columns, would just be false.
I always wanted to like Kristol’s writing, hoping for some insight into that incongruous beast that is the modern Conservative, but I always left the page bewildered that there were people out there that think like him. I mean how can one observe the world, think, and then come up with such conclusions. I think I’ll sooner understand the opposite sex than I will the modern Conservative viewpoint.
January 26th, 2009 at 2:36 pmSee the disappointing thing about Kristol is that he always seemed to just be a conservative as in he’d support whatever was popular in conservatism and oppose whatever is liberal.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:56 pm