Monday, December 28, 2009

Another Quarter Heard From

Just a couple of days ago, I was venting my queasiness over the idea that Peggy Noonan has nice things to say about Barack Obama. Today it is Ross Douthat--the New York Times' new "Mr. Conservative," now that David Brooks has proved too unreliable and Bill Kristol too, well, Kristolline. Douthat's charitable view of the President is not quite as wholehearted as Noonan actually, but a lot kinder than what the President has been hearing from, well, almost anybody else.

I concede that Douthat's influence on any real voter is likely absolute zero (while Noonan's is only vanishingly small). But that may be part of the problem: all of Obama's striving for decency, for constructive dialog--they cost him almost all of his potential friends and gain him two of the most irrelevant people in the vote-counting universe.

I mean-- do we really want to take political guidance from some guy who thinks that masturbation is a vice?

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