If Bill Kristol is always wrong then Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito shouldn’t run for president and we can just put that idea to bed. I’d like to see him resign from the Court, though, which I think would be an absolute prerequisite if he were going to campaign for political office. So, if Alito wants to follow Kristol’s advice, I wholeheartedly endorse this wacko idea.
The rest of the field that Kristol mentions (since he’s not satisfied with any of the eleventy billion candidates already running for the Republican nomination) are hardly any better, and in many cases they are obviously worse.
Mitch Daniels was probably the most successful Republican governor of recent times, with federal executive experience to boot. Paul Ryan is the intellectual leader of Republicans in the House of Representatives, with national campaign experience. The House also features young but tested leaders like Jim Jordan, Trey Gowdy and Mike Pompeo. There is the leading elected representative of the 9/11 generation who has also been a very impressive freshman senator, Tom Cotton. There could be a saner and sounder version of Trump—another businessman who hasn’t held electoral office. And there are distinguished conservative leaders from outside politics; Justice Samuel Alito and General (ret.) Jack Keane come to mind.
My understanding, and I could be wrong, is that Mitch Daniels has never been able to get his family to go along with the idea of a presidential run. As for Paul Ryan, a picture is worth a thousand words.
And don’t get me started on the trio of mouth-breathing House members that Kristol mentioned. Or freaking Tom Cotton.
Bill Kristol gave the world Sarah Palin and now he’s telling us that Ben Carson and Ted Cruz aren’t good enough for him.
And he’s not loving Jeb! either.
On the other hand, it may be that the lesson of the Trump surge—like that of the shorter-lived Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann boomlets in 2011—is that the rest of the field isn’t what it should be. We’ll have a better sense of that in a couple of months. But what if come October all we have is Bushies lacking all conviction, Trumpers full of passionate intensity, and a bunch of uninspiring also-rans? I devoutly hope this isn’t the case. But what if it is?
Yeah, what if it is?
You’ll call Trey Gowdy?
Bill Kristol, ladies and gentleman.
Always wrong.
