According to the NY Times editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal, the hiring of Bill Kristol, an icon of the neoconservative movement, has been on the merit that Mr. Kristol is “serious, respected conservative intellectual”, as reported by Politico. Of course the term “intellectual” is supposed to refer to someone who is utilizing their mental capacity to a high degree, and admittedly there hasn’t been a sighting of that within the neoconservative establishment since the Supreme Court appointed Bush to the White House. From the explicitly false premises advocated by Bill Kristol, upon which the Iraq War was predicated, to the the explicitly wrong predictions that we would be greeted as liberators in Iraq and all the way up to the present, where Bill Kristol is engaging in premature election rhetoric in his NY Times column, Bill Kristol has been nothing but a… bad forecaster?

In his very first column in the NY Times editorial, in the very first sentence, he has already wrongly predicted that Hillary Clinton would lose New Hampshire primary, saying “Thank you, Senator Obama. You’ve defeated Senator Clinton in Iowa. It looks as if you’re about to beat her in New Hampshire”; made a bunch of standard, rhetorical conservative assertions and made a foolish rookie mistake of attributing a quote to the wrong person, as reported here. Of course the word “intellectual” has, over the years, taken on a new meaning, namely “a person of privilege”. With “intellectuals” like that, who needs ignoramuses?!

However, aside from the common neoconservative rhetoric that Mr. Kristol is fully expected to engage in, there is a hidden message, if not an agenda. In analyzing Huckabee’s win in Iowa, and discussing whether he could be the Republican nominee, he says, “He could be. After the last two elections, featuring the well-born George Bush and Al Gore and John Kerry, Americans — even Republicans! — are ready for a likable regular guy”. Hmm, voters are only now ready for a “likable, regular guy”? It strikes me as too familiar a theme. I was under impression that Mr. Bush won on precisely similar qualifications, namely on his likability index. Poll after poll we have seen the American people’s increasing desire to “have a beer” with George Bush. I just hope that those that wanted to have beer with him, actually did.