Everyone knows the tension between libertarians and neo-conservatives. Bill Kristol’s father, Irving Kristol, was the chief architect of the neo-conservative movement. His son, its current philosophical leader, predicted (with hope) — nearly two months ago — that McCain would pick Sarah Palin. Bill Kristol’s excitement about Sarah Palin should be a cause of concern for all libertarian-leaning voters. The video:
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the RLC.
On August 30th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Aaron - I wouldn’t worry about this, seriously. She’s on open book right now, and Kristol advocating for her really doesn’t mean much. Say what you want about him, but he’s a political analyst on Fox… in this video he was saying it was a strategically wise pick and she’s be a great pick for the ticket. The biggest endorsement he gave her was that “she’s great”.
I’d say you shouldn’t read too much into that, given her own statements on foreign affairs and Iraq (that she does not spend a lot of time on the issue). Now, she’ll likely puppet McCain’s Iraq policy - but Chris Matthews last night said about 100 times, “ya know, its pretty obvious - she’s no neoconservative, which is a good thing I think”, and as you pointed out, she has surrounded herself with libertarian minded folks.
We have to keep in mind the political game they will all play, and that everyone is different once they are in office. Assuming Mrs. Palin were the President and not McCain, I think its extremely doubtful she would have a neoconservative foreign policy - even if she advocates for McCain’s policies here in this campaign.
Personally, I’m reserving judgment. She’s certainly a conservative on things like gay rights and such, but a lot of what she says and does is quite a bit different than the Bush conservatives that have been in power this decade.
I have high hopes - even though she herself isn’t a libertarian, I think she has a style that would be friendly to the movement if she were to ascend to the presidency, and hopefully influence McCain at key times. If McCain gives her even a fraction of the influence Bush gave Cheney, then she’ll have considerable weight to throw around, and at this point I think that will be a good thing.
We shall see, though.
But, back to the original point. Don’t read too much into Kristol’s comments. At this point he was just speaking as an analyst.
On August 30th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Kristol may be wrong on certain issues, but even Neocons are human and ought to be given some consideration.
His Neocon credentials aside, Kristol is a fairly astute political operative and his view on Palin is pretty sound.
Dick Morris is a political analyst I think much more highly of and he has said some very positive things about the Palin selection.
Dave