Well, we've already had Mary Matalin defending Palin's decision to step down as Governor of Alaska. Now, no surprise, it's Bill Kristol's turn. Is it just me, or does anyone else think the man doesn't look like he believes a word that's coming out of his mouth? More than usual I mean.
Even though Kristol admits that the move is "high risk", he defends it as some sort of brilliant strategy where Palin can now go campaign full time and become the Obama administration's chief critic. Good luck with that Bill. As Juan Williams points out, Palin can no longer even say that she's a one term Governor of Alaska.
I thought conservatives didn't like it when someone decided to "cut and run". I guess that's okay if you're the object of their affection and want to cut and run for President.
John Amato:
It's no wonder why William the Bloody is defending Palin's decision to bail out. He's the one who pushed McCain big time to make her his VP.
Jane Mayer explains it all took place on a cruise in her piece: How John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin.
Palin received two memos from Paulette Simpson, the Alaska Federation of Republican Women leader, noting that two prominent conservative magazines—The Weekly Standard, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, and National Review, founded by William F. Buckley, Jr.—were planning luxury cruises to Alaska in the summer of 2007, which would make stops in Juneau. Writers and editors from these publications had been enlisted to deliver lectures to politically minded vacationers. “The Governor was more than happy to meet these guys,” Joe Balash, a special staff assistant to Palin, recalled.
On June 18, 2007, the first group disembarked in Juneau from the Holland America Line’s M.S. Oosterdam, and went to the governor’s mansion, a white wooden Colonial house with six two-story columns, for lunch. The contingent featured three of The Weekly Standard ’s top writers: William Kristol, the magazine’s Washington-based editor, who is also an Op-Ed columnist for the Times and a regular commentator on “Fox News Sunday”; Fred Barnes, the magazine’s executive editor and the co-host of “The Beltway Boys,” a political talk show on Fox News; and Michael Gerson, the former chief speechwriter for President Bush and a Washington Post columnist.
Kristol fell in love with Palin, kinda like Sanford fell in love and called his Argentinian girlfriend his soulmate.
The most ardent promoter, however, was Kristol, and his enthusiasm became the talk of Alaska’s political circles. According to Simpson, Senator Stevens told her that “Kristol was really pushing Palin” in Washington before McCain picked her. Indeed, as early as June 29th, two months before McCain chose her, Kristol predicted on “Fox News Sunday” that “McCain’s going to put Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, on the ticket.” He described her as “fantastic,” saying that she could go one-on-one against Obama in basketball, and possibly siphon off Hillary Clinton’s supporters. He pointed out that she was a “mother of five” and a reformer. “Go for the gold here with Sarah Palin,” he said. The moderator, Chris Wallace, finally had to ask Kristol, “Can we please get off Sarah Palin?”The next day, however, Kristol was still talking about Palin on Fox. “She could be both an effective Vice-Presidential candidate and an effective President,” he said. “She’s young, energetic.” On a subsequent “Fox News Sunday,”
Kristol again pushed Palin when asked whom McCain should pick: “Sarah Palin, whom I’ve only met once but I was awfully impressed by—a genuine reformer, defeated the establishment up there. It would be pretty wild to pick a young female Alaska governor, and I think, you know, McCain might as well go for it.” On July 22nd, again on Fox, Kristol referred to Palin as “my heartthrob.” He declared, “I don’t know if I can make it through the next three months without her on the ticket.”
And now Kristol is forced to back Palin's weird decision to quit on the people of Alaska to pursue her own agenda. Way to go, Bill.
