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Letters
Monday, May 19, 2008 12:00 AM

The NYT's latest Kristol embarrassment

Their newest Op-Ed writer makes yet another sloppy, factually false claim in service of his trite partisan agenda.

The letters thread is now closed.

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Monday, May 19, 2008 10:27 AM

at least they have ...

a solid democrat in Paul Krugman who'll jump to Obama's defense.

Oh.

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:28 AM

Gee, Glenn -- the Rethug convention is not til ...

well, it hasn't happened yet, anyhow ... maybe there's still time for Robot Romney to pull a come-back! I assume that now that they've read Kristol's column, the party poohbahs are meeting even now to derail McCain and vindicate the Kristol Ball.

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:33 AM

Glenn ...

that is some quality snark .. Do the Op-ed'ers like Friedman .. Dowd and Kristol .. ever have their columns fact checked? .. or do they always get them printed as is .. no matter the drivel they write? ... is fact checking just for bloggers these days?

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:35 AM

It's an "opinion"

Facts be damned.

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:35 AM

Egypt Steve ...

your post made me laugh .. especially the last line .. the Kristol ball is right ... lol ... do you think "William the Bloody" will make one? .. he could go in business as a fortune teller .. LOL!!

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:36 AM

Bill Kristol lectures... a sexy rain predictions. old men grow old and wither. Kristol is naked. ugh.

Bill Kristol will be embarrassed if some day his "great journalistic" career ends.

In old age it's some time true.... a bedside nurse has to change soiled diapers.

Crossing the toes and fingers won't change Fate. Kristol might have a hissy.

Bill Kristol may say OUCH. YOU pull a little toe pinky. O we wee. Go home.

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:37 AM

Besides

Kristol said

I can't find a single recent instance of a candidate who ultimately became his party's nominee losing a primary by this kind of margin.

That statement may very well be factually correct. You know, as if he said, "I can't find my ass in the dark even if I use both hands."

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:37 AM

AP knows where the "balance" is

We learned yesterday from AP that McCain's candidacy rests on a central assumption:

Despite an unpopular war, an uncertain economy and the GOP's beleaguered status, the country still leans more to the right than to the left.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/6l7b8j

In choosing Kristol, Rosenthal is just doing what he can to make sure that is a true statement. Anyone who happens to be close to believing that, however, need only look at the Mississippi House special election and the rally yesterday for Obama in Portland. Change is coming, and nothing Kristol or Rosenthal can do will prevent that. People are just too mad with where things are now and when they take the time to look at an individual election, the Republicans are coming off as Tom Davis described, a dog food that just can't be sold any more.

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:42 AM

The Right hates elitists

What better statement could the NYT make concerning balance than to hire Krystol to balance all its competent writers?

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:45 AM

But, y'see, Glenn...

...because Kristol is a respected journalist's kid, he's exempt from getting his facts right--or being fact-checked. As well, since he's on-board to provide "balance" (bwahahahahah!), the librul NYT editors don't want to look like they are censoring him or otherwise persecuting him because he's a conservative (hee.)

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:47 AM

I wish!

Obama was off in Noam Chomsky land. I might not have as many trepidations about him.

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:47 AM

A hope. metanoia. (annoying)

Maybe the hearse driver reads Op-Ed that Mr. Kristol scribbled and mouths on Fox?

The driver of the coffin drives @ 120 miles per hour and will hear from Bill Kristol. Dead?

Bill Kristol jumps from the coffin with a big sneeze to scream... `Oy! It's illegal to speed.

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:47 AM

I wonder.....

....if John Stewart bothers to actually read what Kristol writes. Maybe I should send this blog and the NYT op-ed to him in an email so he can use it the next time he has Kristol on his show. For being what appears to be the utter antithesis of all that the Daily Show is made of, Kristol is never properly skewered by Stewart the way he should.

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:50 AM

What about Dem Primaries?

Obama beat Clinton by 48% in Kansas, 50% in Idaho, 51% in DC, 52% in Hawaii, and a whopping 63% in Idaho. So by Kristol's logic, NEITHER candidate can win the primary, since both were beaten by more than 41%.

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:53 AM

Bamage does have a good point.

Kristol didn't say such a defeat had not happened before. He just said he couldn't find a recent example of one. How can we expect a brain that so carefully filters reality to be able to carry out a task that actually involves real research that could take at least two minutes with teh Google?

Maybe the Times could hire Colbert's writers to provide some hot links embedded in Kristol's columns online so that interpretations of what Kristol is saying can be accessed along the lines of "The Word" feature on Colbert's show.

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:55 AM

Diversity and Bipartisanship

'Diversity' in op-eds is like 'bipartisanship' in Congress.

They're both all about the myths of the stifling liberal hegemony and the need to 'balance it out'.

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:56 AM

Thinkprogress people are having a bunch of fun with Kristol...

Here:

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/19/kristol-primaries/#comments

Best observation is that even with Obama's thumpin' in WV, he still pulled in more primary votes than McCain did.

91,663 to 89,654 apparently.

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P08/WV-R.phtml

Monday, May 19, 2008 10:59 AM

@Intercooler

I am having my doubts about Jon Stewart since viewing part of his recent interview with Feith. He did not even come close to asking very tough questions or getting answers to the ones he asked. I realize a lot of people think he did; how could they if they saw the same interview? Maybe that was the price of getting him on the show, or maybe not. Feith has a book to sell and needs publicity.

Monday, May 19, 2008 11:00 AM

We need a photo of Bill Kristol

Show the high school senior year book one?

Show where he's so obsessive-compulsive.

The one where he stands in a janitor closet?

The one, in my opinion, is the photo of mops.

He is full of embarrassment. Staring at mops.

Monday, May 19, 2008 11:02 AM

What can one say...?

One shouldn't have to respond to drivel such as this. As Father Stephen at my school, St Anselm's, used to pronounce..."I'm speechless...and furthermore..."

Monday, May 19, 2008 11:04 AM

Or,

Show the photo where he's screaming.

He is jutting from the NYT's mental ward.

He has a fake black Afro and a pick in his hair.

Monday, May 19, 2008 11:05 AM

He may be an easy target...

... but you sure know how to whack him with finesse, Glenn.

Monday, May 19, 2008 11:06 AM

Help!

I can't find my socks. What? They're on my feet? How was I supposed to know? Can I write a column for a major U.S. newspaper?

Monday, May 19, 2008 11:06 AM

What were they thinking, newspaper edition

You have to wonder if the NYT isn't suffering from the same panic as the RIAA. What are we doing wrong? Where is our business going? Is it a paradigm shift? Etc., etc.

Predictably, the RIAA declares war on its customers, and the NYT, confused about who its customers actually are, hires panderers who target people who've never read the NYT. It reminds me of GM in its heyday -- if the fenders fall off, we'll increase the advertising budget. If that doesn't work, we'll blame the unions.

And how did that work out? Pardon me for believing that Kristol at the NYT, or Krauthammer at the WaPo won't work out any better. In the meantime, if I were Sulzberger, I wouldn't leave the house without my Groucho glasses and a trenchcoat.

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