The Patriotism Card

Bill Kristol doesn't waste time in using it. Yes, there's an artful attempt to explain that he's actually talking about Obama's self-regard. But I'd actually forgotten about the Obama flag lapel story. That's the brute politics Kristol knows beneath the urbane exterior; and when your main task is defending the occupation of a Middle Eastern country for the next century, it's a diversion worth trying, at least. Meanwhile, the AP does a story on Obama's "patriotism" question and CNN delivers a Clintonian push-poll. I'm actually fine with this. The only way to overcome this kind of politics is to endure and transcend it. If we want to say "goodbye to all that," you need to say hello to it for a while.