The New York Times has made it official: today is Weekly Standard editor William Kristol's final column for the paper. His career was brief, perhaps most noteworthy not for Kristol's conservative opinions, but for the errors he made. But hubris wasn't Kristol's problem. Rather the reverse. It seemed like his heart wasn't really in it any longer. Kristol's problem, I suspect, is that he's beginning to lose faith in the conservative movement itself, which is why his column today sounds a rather unusual note.
Instead of frothing at the mouth about Obama's perfidy, Kristol essentially acknowledges that he's the real thing. He even likens him to neocon hero Ronald Reagan. According to Kristol, "Still, there will be trying times during Obama's presidency, and liberty will need staunch defenders. Can Obama reshape liberalism to be, as it was under F.D.R., a fighting faith, unapologetically patriotic and strong in the defense of liberty? That would be a service to our country."
