I seldom read Ross Douthat columns. Back in the day I had Inside Information that the competition for this particular NYT op-ed gig was between Douthat and Megan McArdle and a certain bonobo (who hated the capital gains tax). That kind of made me dubious as to the whole affirmative-action "hire a glib young right-wing imbecile who has sufficient social skills to be cool enough to hang out with Ezra Fucking Klein" thing, as it were.
But this Ross Douthat column makes total sense. The GOP presidential field sucks ass, but if Mitch Daniels were to get involved all of a sudden out of nowhere, that would be great, and everyone would realize that William Kristol is smart.
Right.
I only mention this because Douthat links to William Kristol quoting William Butler Yeats, in a context that is fucking the shit, and which I missed at the time.
A third e-mailer Thursday evening, watching the debate, was reminded of Yeats’s “The Second Coming:”
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.There’s some truth to that. But I can’t help wondering if, in the same poem, Yeats didn’t suggest the remedy:
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?Sounds like Chris Christie.
Shoot me.
