Both Charles Krauthammer and William Kristol - who pass for conservative intellectuals in these degraded times - think that Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum is a worthy standard-bearer for their brand of jihadist Republicanism.
Tags: extremism, Krauthammer, Kristol, Santorum
This is just self-interest for the pundit class. Romney will get the nomination. We can all stop following the story now. But election years become lucrative for some sections of the news media if and only if they can make the story seem exciting, as if the outcome had not long ago been determined. If a story ceases to be a story, their profits will plummet. A done deal gets no ratings. The myth of “other viable candidates” achieves the end of making the story appear to be unfolding. Simple economics.
Neither of those articles is really about Santorum as opposed to being about the race for the Republican nomination, although Mark Kleiman’s point about neither Krauthammer nor Kristol having any problem with Santorum is valid for a liberal. Either they are just doing the lazy “self-interest for the pundit class” thing, or they want to be nice to Santorum because they want Tea Party types to be nice to Governor Romneycare when he gets the Republican nomination.
Krauthammer is not and never has been an intellectual; he’s somebody who can talk ‘intellectually’ about lunacy. If you translate his ideas into an image, it’s a spittle-flecked leader urging war and ethnic cleansing.