Thursday, January 15, 2009

Dinner With Obama

So, Obama had dinner night before last with inside-the-beltway "conservative" pundits.
Let's be clear about this: Except for Charles Krauthammer none of the people at the dinner could be described as a "die-hard" conservative. Nor are they necessarily GOP loyalists. None of them.
George Will, the host of the dinner, has often led the criticism of President Bush and does nothing to hide his disdain for both Presidents Bush. Will is reaching Serious Senior status and he's increasingly desperate to stay in touch. He's never been a McCain fan either and he was probably happy that Obama won. I suppose he sees this as a chance to hang on awhile longer lest his dotage gets the best of him.
Peggy Noonan seems to be a gracious lady and a fine wordsmith. But she too has become disenchanted with the Republican Party and she did not hesitate to dump on both Bush and McCain. She has also been critical of Palin. Peggy has come to enjoy the east-coast "glamour" set. She too seems to feel a compelling need to remain "au-courant."
Bill Kristol always struck me as a curious figure -- a sort of picky, all-too-proper "conservative" who would prefer to engage in tedious debate with the country club set. Passion is not his strong suit.
And Larry Kudlow is more of an economic conservative than anything else. You can't really say that his conservatism is in any way whole or all-encompassing.
So, these are not exactly people who I'd want to be in a foxhole with.
As far as I'm concerned they are nothing more than convenient conservatives, if you know what i mean.
Now, on the same day that this dinner was being held Rush Limbaugh was in Washington as well. But Rush wasn't having dinner with anybody. Rush was having lunch with President Bush in the White House. You see, Rush is old fashioned that way. He believes in sticking. Rush is the sort of guy who leaves the party with the same date he arrived with. How quaint!
Now, that's my kind of conservative!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am gushing all over evrything you have written. Don't you just love it when readers are so agreeable. It would have been better for Krauthammer had he been with Rush and Pres. Bush. That would have been some brain power in action. It's nice that I'm reading so much about how Bush's place in history is going to be far different than from what is now. I'm getting this mostly, though, from Ottawa, UK and Australia.