Bill Kristol: McCain Should Fire His Campaign

by Teh Nutroots |  You can read the rest of this post or you can just read Brad's shorter at Sadly, No! 

Kristol lists the reasons why McCain's campaign is such a disaster.  He omits "listened to the advice of neocons such as Bill Kristol" because he has yet more advice for McCain!  Maybe McCain is doomed, he says, or maybe, just maybe, he can junk the whole campaign and start over.  And by "junk the campaign," he means "do the opposite of what I and other neocons were saying two weeks ago he should do." 

And the McCain campaign has already struck back! McCain campaign spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer said on Fox News:

Well, you know Bill is entitled to his perspective. And I used to work for Bill. And I can tell you personally sometimes he’s brilliant and sometimes he’s not. And this is one where it’s the latter category. You know, I think unfortunately he has bought into the Obama campaign’s party line.  (Think Progress)

Which reminds me of a line from an old Doors' song:

I've been down so goddam long that it looks like up to me

Some of us here feel sorry for McCain.  Most of us hate Bill Kristol and his ilk. 

Meanwhile, McCain is telling Americans that what we really want is a fighter and that he knows what fear and hopelessness feel like. (CNN) No, he doesn't mean as a result of his campaign---he would like for you to know he was a POW!(CNN)

But you know all that and I'm going off topic.  Who wants to mock William Kristol? 

Ta-Nehisi Coates:

Let's get this straight. Two weeks ago,  Kristol argued that McCain's campaign suspension was a great move. Last week. Kristol endorsed Sarah Palin and the McCain people's strategy of taking the gloves off. After it failed miserably, Kristol concludes that McCain "should fire his campaign.'  (Atlantic)

One of Coates' commenters, Kuros:

Kristol is a McCain surrogate.  You can tell by his erratic arguments. 

Justin Gardner: 

In the end, what this temper tantrum is really about is Bill Kristol trying to play CYA. Because let’s remember that he urged McCain (via Palin) last week to hit Obama with Rev. Wright and hit him stronger with Ayers. And now he’s backing away because they didn’t do it correctly?  

You know Bill, maybe the reason the attacks didn’t work is because their messages were thin, dumb and completely unimportant to voters. You know, like most of your columns.  (Donklephant)

Joe Sudbay:

The rats are fleeing the sinking ship and one of the big rats, Bill Kristol, jumped overboard today in his NY Times column. Of course, under the leadership of the GOP brain trust, including Bill Kristol, the whole country has been sinking. But, Kristol isn't doing this to help McCain as it could appear. No, he's really trashing McCain and can then trash him more after McCain doesn't listen to the very wise Bill Kristol...

Kristol has his own agenda. After November 4th, he'll be on FOX telling all the diehards how he could have saved the McCain campaign if they'd only listen. Then, Kristol can continue to be one of the wise men in a party that has been destroyed in the elections, because of the ideas of people like Bill Kristol.  (AMERICAblog)B

Christopher Orr:

Bill Kristol slammed the McCain campaign as "overmatched" and "out-and-out dysfunctional," characterized by "strategic incoherence" and "operational incompetence."

Sounds a little bit like a certain New York Times columnist....It's indisputable that the McCain campaign has been remarkably erratic over the past few weeks. But, if anything, this may be because it's paying a bit too much attention to Kristol's helter-skelter advice.  (TNR)

Scott Lemieux:

[A] campaign that listens to Kristol is indeed in very bad shape, although it's really more a symptom than a cause.

Anyway, if there was a Nobel Prize for hackery, Kristol would be the country's number-one candidate!   (Scott Lemieux, Lawyers, Guns & Money)

Steve Benen:

Why Republicans take Kristol seriously remains a mystery to me.  (Political Animal)

More at Memeorandum as more bloggers weigh in!

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Comments

[SplendidMarbles]

William Kristol makes a decent case, but he should have done so before McCain's crew went off the deep end and brought in the moose-slayer. And, it is (hopefully) too late for a change in campaign leadership. Even with the Dow's historic rally today, his campaign will struggle like an angry, drunken boxer in the dark.