New York Times op ed columnist William Kristol is full of advice for the McCain campaign. A few weeks ago, he recommended that
McCain needs to liberate his running mate from the former Bush aides brought in to handle her — aides who seem to have succeeded in importing to the Palin campaign the trademark defensive crouch of the Bush White House. McCain picked Sarah Palin in part because she’s a talented politician and communicator. He needs to free her to use her political talents and to communicate in her own voice.
Kristol noted with satisfaction that
McCain recently expressed unhappiness with his staff’s handling of Palin [and] dispatched his top aides Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis to join Palin in Philadelphia. They’re supposed to liberate Palin to go on the offensive as a combative conservative ...
She should spend her time making the case for McCain and, more important, the case against Obama. As one shrewd McCain supporter told me, "Every minute she spends not telling the American people something that makes them less well disposed to Obama is a minute wasted.”
Kristol kept up this theme in his next Palin-adoring column (Oct. 6), approvingly noting that Palin
regretted allowing herself to be overly handled and constrained after the Republican convention.This column devoted itself to the theme that Palin should be
more aggressive in helping the American people understand "who the real Barack Obama is"- with "Wright" and "Ayers" figuring large in Kristol's prescription.
Kirstol's drooling over Palin reached its inane conclusion thusly:
I was about to thank her for the interview, but she had one more thing to say. “Only maybe I’d add just a couple more words, and that would be: ‘Take the gloves off.’
And maybe I’d add, Hockey Mom knows best.
But wait!
Today, it's all different!
In today's column, Kristol declares:
let McCain go back to what he’s been good at in the past — running as a cheerful, open and accessible candidate. Palin should follow suit.
They should now be the "happy warriors," he says.
The bad news, of course, is that right now Obama’s approval/disapproval rating is better than McCain’s. Indeed, Obama’s is a bit higher than it was a month ago. That suggests the failure of the McCain campaign’s attacks on Obama.
So drop them.
Huh?
Oh - "not because they’re illegitimate" but because "they aren't working." Apparently, Kristol wants McCain-Palin to keep fomenting "doubts about Obama" but not in their own names - "McCain needs to make his case, and do so as a serious but cheerful candidate for times that need a serious but upbeat leader."
And, Kristol suggests,
At Wednesday night’s debate at Hofstra, McCain might want to volunteer a mild mea culpa about the extent to which the presidential race has degenerated into a shouting match.
Has this supposed pundit no shame?
After egging McCain-Palin on to whip a lynch mob atmosphere complete with racism and threats of violence, he's now advising McCain to hypocritically offer "a mild mea culpa" that really apologizes for nothing?
What I'm really waiting for, however, is for the New York Times to offer a strong "mea culpa" for hiring this pseudo-intellectual apologist for the far-right, paying him undoubtedly big bucks and providing valuable print space for his idiotic and viciously destructive output.
