Will the real Nicholas Kristof stand up!

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2012

We're afraid he already has: We’ve always warned you about Nicholas Kristof.

This morning, he continues his latest peculiar crusade. This passage comes near the end, but his whole column drives this perspective:
KRISTOF (2/2/12): [P]olitical parties are not suicidal. When they overreach, they (often) learn. The Democrats did that when they embraced a Southern centrist named Bill Clinton. The British Labor Party was marginalized when I lived in Britain in the early 1980s, but Tony Blair transformed it and revived it about 15 years later. And in Oregon over the last decade, Bladine notes, social wedge issues have lost their force, and moderate Republicans have re-emerged.

Could the same happen nationally? Sure, it seems impossible at the moment. But if Romney somehow manages to make the Republican Party safe for moderates again, that’ll be a triumph for his party—and for the country.
Nicholas Kristof keeps insisting that Romney is a moderate Republican. Today, he makes it sound like Romney is crusading to recreate this long-lost moderate party.

Has Kristof seen the man’s proposals? Beyond that, does a person have to be nuts to write for the New York Times?

5 comments:

  1. Yes, Kristof is nuts. I am appalled at his writing which is generally crazily exploitative of women in the name of saving women. This was a guy who was afraid of invading Iraq because he "knew" that the Iraqis had WMDs and was afraid for our soldiers. Yes, he reported conversations on WMDS right from the palace of Hussein.

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  2. C'mon, Bob, this is the re-emergence of a popular pundit trope. Remember the good old 'not a dime's worth of difference between Bush and Gore' poppycock from 2000? This is the same old crap, pushed by Versailles-inhabiting ninnies who attach their perspectives and preferences to GOPers in near-total disregard for facts. Has Kristof even read any of Romney's favored policies, such as the tax rates that put more $$$$ in the pockets of millionaires and billionaires? Not likely.

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  3. Yes, Romney has taken many conservative positions. OTOH he has pretty much stayed away from the Tea Parties. Until recently he took the liberal position on climate change. He expressly favors automatic increases in the minimum wage. Conservatives consider the minimum wage to be a dreadful mistake, doing especial harm to the poor and minorities.

    Another problem with Romney, from the conservative POV, is that conservatives don't fully believe that he is committed to the conservative positions he espouses.

    Romney may have put himself in a position where liberals think he's quite conservative, while conservatives think he isn't conservative. That sort of image won't help him get elected.

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  4. Kristof needs to get home to Oregon more often. Then he would know that the last time a Republican served in a state-wide elected office was 1987, the year Vic Atiyeh ended his term as governor.

    Just this past Tuesday, a Democrat, Suzanne Bonamici, soundly defeated a Republican, Rob Cornilles, by 16% in the race to replace disgraced Democratic Congressman David Wu. That's right, the GOP could not get the win even with the seeming albatross of the David Wu sex-scandal-tiger-costume-drug-popping hanging around the Dems neck.

    The Oregon Republican Party nominated former Trailblazer and self-proclaimed moderate Chris Dudley to run for governor in 2010. He lost to former Democratic governor John Kitzhaber, a man whose popularity had reached record low levels by the time he left office eight years before after asserting the Oregon was ungovernable. The GOP invested heavily in Dudley and still lost.

    Whatever moderate Republicans remain in Oregon will be found hunkered down, bemoaning the crude and cruel tack the GOP has taken while sipping Willamette Valley pinot noir in Bob Packwood's suburban Portland living room.

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  5. As long as you use proper grammar and NYT style, you can list your byline as "The Emperor Napoleon" and your 'beat' as "Bellevue Hospital" and get published on a regular basis.

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