Daily NRO Poll Results

National Review Online | 3/16/2011

[curth]

Results from yesterdays poll:

[curth]

I still say it's the toupee glue.

[JPG]

George wears a toupee? I would have sworn that it was a dead animal of some sort.

[Thane_Banquo]

It’s funny how stalwart defenders of “intellectual conservatism” like George Will always end up supporting RINOs. In their minds, intellectual conservatism means agreeing with liberals about nearly everything.

[mortal19440]

I wonder what Bill Buckley would have thought of Sarah? I bet he wouldn’t be making statements like Will is making. Sometimes these guys think their brand of Upper East side/DC elite Conservatism is all their is, I don’t buy that.

[Vigilanteman]

Will's lengthy tenure as the token conservative of the Washington Post has affected his brain. He should stick to writing about baseball, a topic which is less vulneraable to damage by the "inside the beltway" disease.

[backwoods-engineer]

I wonder what Bill Buckley would have thought of Sarah? I bet he wouldn’t be making statements like Will is making.

I think you can judge that by what Buckley thought of Limbaugh. Buckley embraced individuals who could think for themselves, like Limbaugh, regardless of whether they went to high-falutin' Ivy League universities or not, or even any college at all.

Buckley just heaped praise on Limbaugh. I'd like to think, therefore, that he's like Sarah, and would be in favor of the Tea Party movement.

[mortal19440]

Agree! I think the Will’s of the world should cut her some slack. She probably doesn’t care.

[Rockingham]

There is a natural tension -- and sometimes hostility -- between the worlds of ideas and of workaday politics. This is normal and healthy.

As a practical matter, writers and intellectuals do not need to rub elbows with or enlist in political campaigns. Yet all serious Presidential candidates these days need to have the support of prominent idea spinners. Without them, campaigns lack coherence and substance.

On campaign staff, writers and intellectuals churn out position papers and speeches in their areas of expertise. If successful, these are echoed and advanced by sympathetic colleagues through articles, blog posts, and media appearances.

Palin, for all her qualities and accomplishments, has not attempted to establish herself as having a substantive interest in conservative political ideas. Nor has she even begun to assemble a set of conservative intellectual allies. In contrast, Reagan long courted conservative writers and intellectuals through letters and private meetings.

Jeane Kirkpatrick, for example, was startled to get a complimentary, detailed letter from Reagan discussing her seminal November 1979 article in Commentary magazine on "Dictatorships and Double Standards." Not long after, Kirkpatrick met Reagan and found that he had a firm grasp of foreign policy issues. Although a Democrat, she endorsed Reagan in 1980 and went on to serve in his administration.

Similarly, before Reagan's 1980 campaign, conservative activist Lee Edwards was invited to visit Reagan at his California ranch. Reagan had a reputation in conservative circles in Washington as a genial if successful mediocrity. The Reagans retired early and left the still wide awake Edwards in the book stuffed main room of the ranch house.

Edwards, to his surprise, found that Reagan had a substantial library of works by conservative intellectuals and that he had written extensive notes in them and on slips of paper. Reagan's books were not for display but were a continuing source of ideas and information.

Edwards found that this was also reflected in his private talks with Reagan. Edwards returned to Washington as an apostle for Reagan and his intended campaign. As he mentioned more than once, although many conservative intellectuals had works by the formidable Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, how had read and annotated them as Reagan had done?

Palin does not seem to have made effective approaches to or converts among conservative writers and intellectuals. She has permitted her adversaries to define her, which is never a sound course.

Can Palin reverse the damage if she intends to run for President? Yes, but she must begin to do so soon by acting more like a serious candidate and less like a cultural icon and media figure.

[alstewartfan]

Does anyone in the 30% know what they are agreeing with? Conservatives are “creedal”, says Will, therefore given to “empty intellectualism”. Al Sharpton makes more sense. Bob