Posted by
Always To The Right on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 1:02:52 PM
I like David Brooks, and he’s about as conservative as anyone with a
regular column in the New York Times could be, but I’d classify him as
center-right at best. George Will and Bill Kristol are certainly
conservative, but Will doesn’t dig into the partisan warfare,
preferring to remain on policy more than politics. Kristol, though, is
a man for the trenches, a stalwart on both policy and politics.
Kristol’s presence impresses me the most. Had Obama just wanted a
conservative “beard”, he could have stuck with Brooks and invited Doug
Kmiec. The entire meeting is somewhat of a surprise, but Kristol’s
presence indicates that Obama wanted it to be taken seriously.
Will it change Obama’s direction? Of course not. Obama will do what Obama wants to do. I’d guess that he’s hoping at best
to take some of the nastiness out of the punditry to come over the next
few months. It’s not as easy to rip your friends as it is your
opponents, and Obama wants a base of goodwill for his first 100 days to
give him some breathing space. It makes some sense, but knowing
Kristol as I do (slightly personally, but I’ve read him for years), I
don’t think it will work if Obama runs to the left on economics and
foreign policy — nor should it.