How did these idiots keep beating us for years?

Please please please, Senator McCain, LISTEN TO BILL KRISTOL!

We're fortunate to have morons such as Kristol defending conservatism.
May I remind all that it was Kristol who "found" Sarah Palin!

It's the Bush aides' fault that Sarah Palin keeps using the "thanks but no thanks" line despite repeated debunkings. It's the Bush aides' fault that Palin can't make coherent sentences because she's too busy consulting notes and memorizing spin. It's the Bush aides' fault that Palin has governed Alaska like the corrupt fiefdom that McCain supposedly opposes.

Assuming that's the case, it's Sarah Palin's fault that she hasn't told the Bush aides to "shoo, get back over there" (to quote Tina Fey).

Let them attack Obama on Wright, then the Obama camp just needs to cue up all the ads of Palin's witch hunting pastor as a response.

Hmmm, wonder if Kristol's heard of Pastor Thomas Muthee, Palin's witch doctor?

I think letting Palin off the leash and muzzle would give Biden the opportunity to treat her as *any* other VP candidate would be treated, no special coddling. She's been promoted by the McCain campaign as a "pitbull" and "barracuda," after all. And bringing up Wright would open the door to Palin's fringe religious associations. It would be unfortunate if the VP situation sunk to that insanity, but I don't see how else it would go if Wright was reintroduced into the mix.

yes!

Let her talk!

Let her talk on Letterman!
Let her talk on CNBC!
Let her talk on Fox!

On a milk crate, in the streets, in churches, and schools and in private homes.

Let Palin talk. Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, Palin's free at last.

It's going to take awhile, but I think we need to make the word 'neoconservative' a bad word, just like the word 'liberal' was made a bad word long ago. Seriously, when we dismiss people's opinion, we should simply say things like:

"Who cares what Bill Kristol thinks? He's a neoconservative." Period.

Can anyone tell me about Obama's 'truth squad' in Missouri threatening lawsuits over misleading campaign ads? Some neocons I know are accusing him of instituting a police state by referencing this.

Kristol could be right about this strategy. He's bound to be right about something some fine day.

Bill Kristol puts a smile my face every Monday morning with his weekly comic column in the NY Times. He almost as good as the late Joey Adams.

I remember saying the same sort of thing about Howard Dean shortly before he flamed out. 'Let Howard be Howard!' Always a bad sign.

The only reson the NYT has that fool is he generates traffic. The villan we love to hate. If you go to the comments section on his column, they are running around 99-1 against what that mindless drooling idiot is pontificating on. Nothing to see here move along ..not worthy of comment.

If Democrats are very lucky, McCain will take Kristol's advice.

.. and while he's at it, maybe he'll submit to a drug test. All the signs of being pumped full of uppers and calmers and god-knows-what were on display at the debate. Are presidential candidates subject to drug testing like athletes? After all, it is a sporting contest, isn't it.

I'm surprised they haven't made more of Wright. So far, the party of swift-boaters has been pretty tame.

Isn't there someone who is a good film editor out there who could put together a "Wright vs. Muthee" tape in which their own words would be used. If it started circulating, it might just show how (generally, with some exceptions) sensible Wright in fact was, and how dangerous Muthee is.

(BTW, when i quoted sections from Muthee's tape the other day, the reason i left out the "Israelite" one -- one of the most damaging of the quotes -- was simply that I missed it going by. I was putting things down as I heard them, and his accent is pretty rough in spots.)

Laugh if we must, but this is probably the exact tactic they are working on -- letting Sarah be Rush. Very likely that Kristol got this idea from the Limbaugher himself. And Rush will very likely be working in concert in serving up words for Palin to repeat ... "in her own voice". Rush is very much on the team.

Bill Kristol really should try his hand at stand up comedy, because he has the gift for hilarity.

Wright? You really want to bring that up in light of Palin's witch doctor?

Kristol needs to head down to South America with his former boss, Dan Quayle, and shop for stuff "little boys think about."

Let's bellieve for a while Palin is held captive by some sinister bushies...

Who choose these bushies to be part (and paid) by the McCain campaign?
Can it be it was - McCain?

Another great choice by the grand old bully.

At this stage, I simply have a hard time imagining attack-ads featuring Wright as being effective. It has nothing to do with Palin's witch doctor.

I think the Wright bullet pretty much got used up in the primaries. The righties shot their wad early, as they are prone to do. This kind of thing will only contribute to the sense that McCain is desperate.

JimBOB said:
How did these idiots keep beating us for years?

Because the Democratic party leadership and their consultants are even worse -- they're idiots and cowards. Since McGovern they've been ashamed of their own beliefs and have been afraid to present those beliefs unflinchingly to the public.

The Democrats ended up offering a "Republican lite" agenda -- all the policies, half the meanness. They never thought to ask themselves why Americans would vote for pseudo conservatives when they could vote for the real thing.

Fortunately, Obama has ignored their failed strategy and, hopefully, will soon kick the Old Guard to the curb.

Boy... Considering Kristol's track record with predictions this almost counts as an endorsement for Obama.

Boy... Considering Kristol's track record with predictions this almost counts as an endorsement for Obama.

Doesn't Bill Kristol watch TV?

SteveT has got it right. Obama is not ashamed in what he believes in. Now if we can get some House and Senate leadership that also stands up for the good of the country, we'll see some real changes.

The GOP has become a strange cult and has now become the party of "weirdos". I think voters are beginning to catch on.

Agree that "neoconservative" should be used as a swear-word, similar to the way "liberal" is used as an invective like "kid-diddler." Would also never use "John McCain" in a sentence unless the word "gambler" was included in the sentence. That NY Times story has to be given legs. John McCain is a gambler. He took another gamble. Wasn't one of them ol' teevee Maverick boys a gambler? Yup, that's our maverick Johnny, jist takin' another gamble here.

>"Please please please, Senator McCain, LISTEN TO BILL KRISTOL!"

NOOOOOOOO! If history is any indicator the American people will fall for it.

Gays! Liburals! Evlution taut in teh schouls.... sputtter.... sputter...

We've heard Sarah Palin talk in her "own voice." It sounds something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
.

Regarding the Missouri question above-- Missouri actually has a law against false claims in political ads. Obama's people haven't sued anyone, however they have questioned some of McCain's ads for being misleading or making false claims and for violating the law. Hardly what neocons are making it out to be.

Laugh if we must, but this is probably the exact tactic they are working on -- letting Sarah be Rush. Very likely that Kristol got this idea from the Limbaugher himself. And Rush will very likely be working in concert in serving up words for Palin to repeat ... "in her own voice". Rush is very much on the team. Posted by: lou

Rush may very well be on the team, but he's well past his "sell by" date as far as being effective at anything other than rallying "the base." And remember, that's what Palin was brought in to do.

Idiots like Palin and Limbaugh may always pluck the heart strings of "the base." According to latest polling, Bush is down to, what, a 20% approval rating? There's your base. You don't win national elections appealing to people who find a shining political light in a "high functioning moron" or his female doppelganger.

If I were a GOP pundit (god forbid) the LAST thing I would do is drag up the good Reverend Wright, lest my opponent start exposing Sarah Palin's ties to the unquestionably crazed Reverend Moothy and his witch-hunting screwballs

http://buzzfeed.com/yurig/palins-witchhunter-so

Frankly, the American people should know that Palin is a DOMINIONIST (if you don't know what that is check this out http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/TheDespoilingOfAmerica.htm)

Her pastor is completely off the charts.

In what parallel universe is Sarah Palin a "talented communicator"? She can barely put a sentence together without a teleprompter. I'm not suggesting she is stupid - plenty of people on the street get tongue-tied; their presence of mind deserts them when they're in front of a big crowd or sense a large viewership, and they have to wing it. But those people are not running for Vice President.

Sarah Palin is far from a talented communicator. She is an ideological small-town mayor who struggles to shoehorn talking points into every reply, and ends up sounding incoherent. "Liberating" her to do more of the same would not help McCain's cause at all.

This column does say something about Bill Kristol, though. He's more in love with his own self-image as a political game-changer and analyst than he is with the cause of the party to whom he has allied himself. If he possessed anything like the enormous talent he believes he has (in spite of repeated failures, which he appears not to notice), we might be in trouble.

As it is, we're not.

Kristol said let Palin talk, but he didn't say let her be interviewed. Billy wants Palin to give her patented, smarmy, whiny, red meat speeches that ignited her popularity in the week after the RNC. The crowds went wild then.

Unfortunately for Bill, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. She's been outed as a fraud and a lightweight and she'll never been seen in that pristine light again. Kristol wants the campaign staff to put the shovel back in Sarah's hands to dig a deeper hole. Great. Let's all pass the popcorn and let the drinking games begin.

I'll translate Kristol for you all, "For the next month, we're going to hammer Obama on being black."

Maybe he thinks the country hasn't noticed.

Kristol is projecting.

Obama's not a liberal. He's said over and over again he believes in pragmatism.

Only conservatives are ideologues.

Goldilocks: "All the signs of being pumped full of uppers and calmers and god-knows-what were on display at the debate."

That is such horseshit. Horseshit, I say!

Would you describe reading Kristol as a "guilty pleasure", Mr. Benen?

There's a point at which there is no reason to tell us a thing the man says except schadenfreude on your part.

Rev. Wright? Good grief. Between the creepy witch doctor and Pastor Hagee (remember him?), I don't think the Obama camp has too much to worry about on this front.

ANY attacks on Palin that are wacky clergy-based or experience-based are losers, because they immediately draw comparison to Obama and highlight his wacky clergy and lack of experience, and only one of the two are running for President. Posted by: SJRSM

An angry African-American preacher decrying the lingering racism in America doesn't hold a candle to fringe Christian nut jobs still worried about witchcraft and praying for Armageddon.

And as far as resumes go, I don't think you really want to compare Palin's to Obama's. You don't even want to compare McCain's. McCain's longevity in the senate is owed entirely to the fact that Arizona is full of people even less accomplished and knowledgeable than he is. He has never been a leader on any issue and should have been prosecuted for his involvement with the Keating Five.

Need better trolls.

SJRSM:
Thanks, I knew my idea is a good one, and your opposition only confirms it. Of course, my whole point is how 'un-wacky' in most cases, Wright is, and how stone-crazy Muthee is, how Wright supports the ideals of America (and only condemns her for not living up to them -- the way a Wm. Lloyd Garrison did) and how Muthee is opposed to them. (The anti-Semitism of Muthee helps too.)

And, given the age and health of McCain, saying Palin is not running for President is nonsense -- in fact, because of the 'uncertainty of life' any VP Candidate is, but in this case it is more obvious.

And the words "President Sarah Palin" should -- and does -- scare the hell out of anybody with a brain.

But what to make of this? Will there be another "bail-out" this week?

"For his part, Mr. Palin has worried about the frequent separation of his wife from her family, friends and Alaska staff, an adviser said. Accordingly, her family will be with her in Sedona during this week."-- WSJ

But what to make of this? Will there be another "bail-out" this week?

"For his part, Mr. Palin has worried about the frequent separation of his wife from her family, friends and Alaska staff, an adviser said. Accordingly, her family will be with her in Sedona during this week."-- WSJ

"Rush may very well be on the team, but he's well past his "sell by" date as far as being effective at anything other than rallying "the base." And remember, that's what Palin was brought in to do." Jeff II

That is exactly right. But, this is the only thing left for Palin to do effectively if she does what Kristol suggests and speaks in her own voice. We will hear Palin repeatedly use a few sound bites attacking Obama no matter what the question. She'll turn any question or criticism about herself or McCain as an opportunity to point her barbed tongue on Obama. If McCain thinks they are going down, they will abandon the hope of gaining the undecided voters and go down "honorably" (ugly).

I'm surprised no one has noted the truly jaw-dropping sentence in Kristol's piece -- "the trademark defensive crouch of the Bush White House."

Yeah, that's been the problem with the Bush administration: they just having been aggressive enough in pushing their points.

Reference to Jeremiah Wright is a dog-whistle, and racism is still a dependable strategy in some places. It may not be as productive as it once was, but Republicans will continue to use it, in a guarded way within the McCain campaign itself, and more blatantly many of those at NR and elsewhere.

Reference to Jeremiah Wright is a dog-whistle, and racism is still a dependable strategy in some places. At this point its purpose is to distract from the economy and other issues - that has worked and will continue to do so. It may not be as productive as it once was, but Republicans will continue to use it, in a guarded way within the McCain campaign itself, and more blatantly by many of those at NR and elsewhere.

Reference to Jeremiah Wright is a dog-whistle, and racism is still a dependable strategy in some places. Posted by: skeptonomist

As I wrote about Palin and Limbaugh elsewhere and as we can see in the poll numbers of certain states, a certain percentage of Americans will always be ignorant and worthless. Nothing will reach them. There JUST isn't much the Obama campaign can be expected to do that will "reach" fringe right wing "Christians" and racists in the old Confederacy.

Don't know how many of you remember that Kristol was also the genius who tried to sell the "new" Dan Quayle to the press, he almost succeeded with a few dimwits in the MSM, but ultimately, his story that Quayle was actually quite intelligent, underrated, true blue carrier of the Reagan mantle (sound familiar?) fell apart when Quayle ran for President.

On a side note, as I've commented on before, if people bring up the "radical" Wright, then Todd Palin's membership in the "radical" Alaska first group he belonged to should be fair game.

Guys we're talking about William "the Bloody" Kristol here. What's his track record as a pundit like? Somewhere around zero wins?

If he's telling the McCain camp that they need to let Palin out of her box and start hammering Obama on Rev. Wright then it's painfully obvious that these are the worst possible things that McCain could do right now. Kristol wants him to do them. Kristol is always wrong. Therefore these two things are bad moves - Q.E.D.

Sometimes I think Kristol is like a canary in a mineshaft. When he approves of something someone is doing the canary has died and they should know they need to backtrack and get the hell out of there. Kristol's approval is a death sentence. And frankly that makes him one of the more useful pundits on the page - everyone knows that pundits are often wrong, but how many of them are as consistently and disastrously wrong as William Kristol? He's like Bizzaro-Pundit - up am down. Black am white. Kristol no am stupid pundit.

Guys we're talking about William "the Bloody" Kristol here. What's his track record as a pundit like? Somewhere around zero wins? Posted by: NonyNony

He's not a pundit. He's a propagandist.

One has to expect racism from those who supported terrorism against Iraqis merely because they were brown people far away. It's a well known effect, one seldom finds mentally disturbed people with only one problem. In this case, a love of terrorism and racism go hand in hand. One would hardly be surprised if it turned out that such a mentally diseased individual also had a history of having personally killed human beings - though, given a fascination with terrorizing them it would probably take some incredibly cowardly form.

Strange, I wonder why Kristol didn't simply suggest that McCain release Palin to shoot Obama with a big-ass gun? She's probably a better shot than she is a speaker.