Leave it to William Kristol to give the ascendancy of Barack Obama and the Democratic Party a much needed breath of historical perspective:
Since Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, conservatives of various sorts, and conservatisms of various stripes, have generally been in the ascendancy. And a good thing, too! Conservatives have been right more often than not — and more often than liberals — about most of the important issues of the day: about Communism and jihadism, crime and welfare, education and the family. Conservative policies have on the whole worked — insofar as any set of policies can be said to “work” in the real world. Conservatives of the Reagan-Bush-Gingrich-Bush years have a fair amount to be proud of.
What a relief! I was afraid Bill was going to choke in the final inning and actually say something that wasn’t instantly and flatly contradicted by observable reality, but he stepped up like a champ and protected his streak.
In many ways, Bill seems like a modern DiMaggio, if Joltin’ Joe’s celebrated record had involved getting beaned in 56 consecutive games. But today, he most clearly reminds me of another baseball legend, Ted Williams, who capped a long and distinguished career by belting a home run in his last at-bat. For like the Splendid Splinter, Kristol didn’t just strike out and limp slump-shouldered into the dugout; instead, he saved the best for last, concluding his trenchant pensées with perhaps the six most stirring and eloquent words that have ever appeared beneath his byline:
This is William Kristol’s last column.
Our long national toothache is over.
His last column? Really? Awww! Truly, the Obama Administration is destroying political comedy in this country. What will our noble, public-minded snarkmeisters do when all of these sad vicious little sociopaths get banished from the MSM? It’s hard to get serious laughs out of thoughtful discourse and calm good grace, let me tell you. Won’t someone think of the writers, fer God sakes! I hereby move that Bill be replaced Immediately by the 4-square Time-Cube guy. They share the same shaky grasp of objective reality, and the Cube guy is a helluva lot more fun. Also, the impact on the NYT’s apocryphal “credibility” would be negligible, seeing as how they have none. But, that’s just me, I could be wrong….
Left by Kordo on January 26th, 2009