I think I'm going to continue to document cases of intelligent people on the right saying stupid things. The other day, I wrote about David Brooks, who had said:
The president's case is that the world is safer with Saddam out of power, and that we should stay as long as it takes to help Iraqis move to democracy. Kerry's case is that the world would be safer if we'd left Saddam
Now, it's William Safire, who yesterday on Meet the Press said,
And I think that is the clear difference between the candidates this year. Kerry wants out and to turn things over to the U.N., and Bush wants to win.
This is where parroting conventional wisdom gets you... into a distorted view of both candidates. Saying that Bush wants to win seems to imply that Kerry doesn't. I hope that RNC check is on its way, Bill. To her credit, Doris Kearns Goodwin responded:
MS. GOODWIN: I don't think that's fair. I mean, I think that what Kerry is trying to say is that because Bush has not been willing to acknowledge mistakes over time, because he hasn't been willing to look at what worked and what didn't work because of that stubborn drivingness forward, there's no chance for the situation to change and turn over there. And perhaps if a new president gets in that's willing to look at what happened, what went wrong, you can't be in a position of saying, "We're just going to get out." He's not really saying that. If he does, he's not going to win. But I think what he's saying is that we need the kind of leadership that can absorb what went wrong, change it and make a fresh start.
Which, at the very least, is a more accurate characterization of Kerry's view.
Bill Safire is just the latest of the conservative pundits to fall, though. No one was surprised with Robert Kagan or Newt Gingrich knowly lied about Kerry's position on the war, and of course everyone expected the Bush campaign to say that Kerry flip-flops no matter what the truth is. But when David Brooks and now Bill Safire, two men I disagree with, but who have generally consistent and intellectually honest views, start lying so irresponsibly, that shows there must be something wrong. I think the Fox News syndrome has finally gotten to the last responsible Republicans left.
-- Michael
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