Obviously because Kristol is a Hillarista.  It is just what they do.  Cite evidence that shows the opposite of the claim they are making.

Hillaristas claim she has "momentum," but she is further behind in delegates today than she was the eve of TX-OH-VT-RI which was to be the beginning of the big turnaround.  She continues to win by losing.  Kristol has been drinking Hillary Kool-Aid and hence interprets numbers the same way.

I should have added that, as Hillary continues to pander to the right, they and she grow more indistinguishable in more ways than one.

For the same reason Olbermaan gave on Steven Colbert for going after O'Riley:  "Because he's an idiot, Stephen."

To support Hillary is to lay down with the likes of Bill Kristol. Or is that "lie"? I can never remember the difference, and I suspect that where Bill and Hillary are concerned, "lay" and "lie" is an important distinction.

"Punch" could not have selected a worst columnist for the formerly available "right" slot at the Times, except for Ann Coulter and even he wouldn't select her. Charles Krauthammer would have been a far better choice.

Anne Applebaum or Christopher Caldwell would have been excellent.

Also, nice to see GOPers now taking seriously my earlier suggestion that McCain nominate Jindal-- ex-McKinsey, Rhodes, LA health secretary and easily the best informed and deepest on health care of any pol on the national stage now-- as a way of showing seriousness about halth care and willingness to shake up the race. I'd love to hear him debate Obama on health care.

I'd put the odds of McC selecting Jindal at 50-50 now. He needs to be bold if he's going to win with gas prices north of $4 and the GOP's ratings in the toilet.

I don't expect there to be debates between presidential candidates and vice-presidential candidates any time soon.

Telplukhin2you: Anne Applebaum certainly but I have reservations about Christopher Caldwell.

Tep, Jindal takes the Obama-is-inexperienced attack off the table (in respectable venues, anyway).  Jindal is impressive, true, but his tenure in government service is even shorter than Obama's.  In short, Jindal fails the ready-on-day-1 test.

The inexperience card is the best one GOP has, and McCain would be foolish to squander it away.

Tep, Jindal is only 36, has only been Gov. for a few months, and is India Indian, if people are confused about Obama's ethnicity, wait till they get a look at Jindal. In 4 years sure, give him a look after he has proven himself in Louisiana. I am sorry but HHS sec. for a shithole state like LA just doesn't cut it.

Yes, blackton, Bobby Jindal will not under any circumstances be named by McCain to the v.p. slot. Crist or Sanford have infinitely better chances of selection than does Jindal.

Jindal is a right-wing extremist, which might be appealing to hard conservatives who don't trust John "I didn't vote for Bush" McCain.

But it sure would take the experience issue off the table. McCain can't afford that - it might be the only thing he'll have over Obama.

Anyway, tep, you may be the first person ever to get excited because he was on the same wavelength as Bill frickikn' Kristol. Uh ... congrats?

woody - Kristol's only relaying what he hears from smarter, more knowledgeable GOP insiders.

Re Obama vs Jindal, I find it ironic that almost all the arguments voiced against Jindal are precisely the ones that cut against Obama. If Jindal's not ready, then Obama certainly isn't ready. Jindal has executive experience from two major executive positions. Obama's executive experience = zip.

I don't care for Jindal's ideology but he's at least as clever, and attractive from a character standpoint, as Obama. If you're going to tout Obama based on merely his brains and his lifestory, then at least be consistent and recognize that Jindal's brains and bio are easily a match for Obama's.

Personally, I don't tout Obama 'based merely on his brains and lifestory.' His best feature is what he says he'll do as president. You know, his policies and proposals. You have this weird fantasy that Obama supporters sit around doodling pictures of him riding unicorns and fighting dragons. You're wrong.

McCain will make a large amount of hay this summer and fall over the fact that little Barack is so young and inexperienced. Callow youth, he'll say. Not ready to be leader of the free world. Then, all of a sudden, he has a vice presidential nominee named "Bobby." The guy who would be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office - half a heartbeat away, in McCain's case - is ten years younger than Obama and not as accomplished. At the convention podium it will look like McCain brought his daughter's boyfriend along. Oh, they'll bring up this overwhelming "executive experience" you tout, but mostly people will laugh at that.

blackton....you're confusing the beauty of Louisiana for the actual shitholes that surround it. Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. Don't blame Louisiana for the trashiness of its neighbors. I mean...what cultural elements have every made their way out of any of those "other" states that can be said to be known internationally in a positive way? Tejas is wannabe Mexico with a bunch of gringos who think sour cream is  mexicana authentica and Georgie Boy Bush? Mississippi? Faulkner sure, and nothing but bad jokes and mud pies. Sure Alabama gave us the Temptations but Luzianna gave the world Jazz, Louis Armstrong, Dr. John, world famous Creole and Cajun cooking, Mardi Gras 'Nawlins style, The Big Easy, the best damn crawfish boils anywhere, blackened catfish, chicory roasted coffee, Faulkner's first book, and the Louisiana Purchase itself.

tep, I think the argument against McCain picking Jindal isn't that Democrats would unleash a flurry of "INEXPERIENCED!  INEXPERIENCED!" cries.  It's that McCain would deplete his own arsenal of attacks against Obama.  It would look silly to attack Obama for his lack of experience with a Veep candidate who is also thin on experience.

McCains age will be pushed HARD this year.  His VP has to look as presidential as him.  46 is a stretch to some, but at least we've been there before.  Nobody is going to go for the notion that we can have a 36 year old who is a heartbeat away from the presidency, no matter his appeal to diversity.  He'll make Obama, at 46, look like a lot more appealing to those who actually buy into the fear  too-young-for-the-office argument.   And,  the "are we ready for a president of (insert race here) origin is off the table.  You know they want that floating around for Johnny Mac to look good non-denial denying.  If that makes sense?

singlespeed,

You're confusing the beauty of New Orleans for the actual shitholes that surround it. The rest of Louisiana.

Woody: You have this weird fantasy that Obama supporters sit around doodling pictures of him riding unicorns and fighting dragons. You're wrong.

That is about as on target as what the anti-Obama people seem to think as I have ever read.

singlespeed, I have driven through the length of LA on more than one occasion. I dunno, swamps. misquitos the size of alley cats, and subminimum wage jobs ain't that intriguing to me.

Noah - When one is a neocon like Kristol, one doesn't examine the facts and then draw a conclusion.  Rather, one determines the conclusion one wants to reach (e.g, Iraq has WMDs, Obama's support is dwindling), and then fixes the facts to support that conclusion.  Or at least that's the way they put it on Downing Street.

I have to admit, though, to taking a certain perverse guilty pleasure in reading Kristol's columns, if only to pick out the distortions and marvel at his cluelessness.   Maybe this is the method behind Sulzberger's madness?

You got me there, though - "intellectual honesty" and "William Kristol" in the same sentence.  It's not somethjng you see that often.

woody...don't let my beautiful cajun girlfriend let you hear her talking about Lafayette like that! It's ain't a shithole..it's called Southern charm! And I'll say this...I have yet to grace the streets of Shreveport so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt thre. But there is some nice "country' out thar'. Just gots to get out in da bayou and sees it fo yo'self.

Hey, you started it by dissing my beloved home state as "wannabe Mexico" (???). Texas, of course, is known for far more than George W. Failure. And while I'm all for shunning the state's current political output, you are dissing a place that taught the world how to make barbecue, enjoy themselves on the dance floor (Bob Wills, Willie Nelson, SRV, Lightnin' Hopkins) and play college football.

The only part of the state I don't care for is East Texas, and I've always attributed that to it being too close to Louisiana.

I am a little jealous of you for having a Cajun girfrlend, though - those women are All Right. ;-)