Bill Kristol went on MSNBC with Joe Scarborough Tuesday morning and I tuned in to see if he would respond to the rodeo clown, but he wouldn’t address his dust up with Glenn Beck on MSNBC. He did however admit to be very disappointed in Sara Palin’s performance after she quit being governor in Alaska and now is picking either Paul Ryan (WI) or Chris Christie (NJ) as his top choices to be the GOP’s 2012 presidential candidate with Marco Rubio as VP. How the mighty Palin has fallen. Kristol was the man who touted her to John McCain and has been an avid Palin supporter ever since. Conservatives see Rubio as a bridge into the Latino population while Republicans still vilify their community at every turn. (rough transcript via MSNBC ) Q: Do you feel like you overestimated her and do you feel like she is fit to be a national Republican leader? — Kristol: I have a high regard for Sarah Palin, but I have to say I’ve been a little disappointed since she’s resigned from governor. I thought she had a real chance to take the lead on real policy issues, to do a little more in terms of framing the policy agenda. I don’t think she’s particularly done, but she’s shrewed, I wouldn’t underestimate her. Q: Has she lived up to the potential that you saw in Alaska? Kristol: Maybe not quite, but she’s young and she can do it in this campaign or she can do it four or eight years from now. Kristol has always been enamored with Barbie Doll looking politicians since he was the chief of staff for Dan Quayle (He was called Quayle’s Brain) and saw him as the poster boy for Conservatives because of his looks rather than substance , but as we know he flamed out completely. That’s why Kristol fell in love with Sarah Palin on a 2007 cruise. In June 2007, a cruise hosted by the political journal The Weekly Standard set anchor in Juneau, Alaska. Standard editors William Kristol and Fred Barnes then lunched with Governor Sarah Palin. It was a moment of discovery to equal Hernando Cortez’s landing at Veracruz. The Daily Telegraph’s Tim Shipman saw this encounter as the launch of a Neoconservative project surrounding Palin. He interviewed a former Republican White House official now at the American Enterprise Institute about Palin: “She’s bright and she’s a blank page. She’s going places and it’s worth going there with her.” Asked if he sees her as a “project,” the former official said: “Your word, not mine, but I wouldn’t disagree with the sentiment. Kristol appeared on Fox News on June 30, 2008, confidently predicting that McCain would select Sarah Palin and as a public display of support, oil prices would miraculously fall. Kristol can fairly lay claim to having “discovered” Palin for Washington political circles. Palin’s name appeared in 41 Weekly Standard articles since the Juneau meeting—starting with a paean entitled “ The Most Popular Governor ” that ran right after the reception. He did help create a money making Conservative personality in Palin that attracts only the base of his party so he failed again with his agenda. The polls all tell the same story with her super high negatives and that’s why he’s switched to one of the youngsters of the Conservative gibberish movement in Paul Ryan and a nasty debater in their new love—Chris Christie. Will Kristol be Facebooked by now that he’s bailed on her and said as much on MSNBC? UPDATE : Salon has more: Now we know Palin has no chance in ’12
Bill Kristol bails on Sarah Palin and picks either a Ryan/Rubio or Christie/Rubio 2012 GOP ticket.