HITCHENS SELLS OUT (Slate staff endorsements)

slate.com (via Drudge) ^ | 10/26/04 | Slate Staff

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Christopher Hitchens, Contributor: Kerry

I am assuming for now that this is a single-issue election. There is one's subjective vote, one's objective vote, and one's ironic vote. Subjectively, Bush (and Blair) deserve to be re-elected because they called the enemy by its right name and were determined to confront it. Objectively, Bush deserves to be sacked for his flabbergasting failure to prepare for such an essential confrontation. Subjectively, Kerry should be put in the pillory for his inability to hold up on principle under any kind of pressure. Objectively, his election would compel mainstream and liberal Democrats to get real about Iraq.

The ironic votes are the endorsements for Kerry that appear in Buchanan's anti-war sheet The American Conservative, and the support for Kerry's pro-war candidacy manifested by those simple folks at MoveOn.org. I can't compete with this sort of thing, but I do think that Bush deserves praise for his implacability, and that Kerry should get his worst private nightmare and have to report for duty.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

I doubt the drunk goes through with it, but it's a sell-out all the same.

Here are some highlights from Slate's near-unanimous slate of ringing endorsements:

"I'll pull the lever for Kerry, if for nothing else than to defeat the misconception that being contemplative is somehow paralyzing." (Kevin Arnovitz, Fray Editor)

"I'm voting for Kerry, with no great belief that he will be a first-rate president." (Paul Berman, Contributor)

"So I'll take a chance on Kerry, but if he wins I'll skip the victory party. Too many of his supporters have proven as divisive, dishonest, and hateful as they imagine their bogeyman Karl Rove to be." (Paul Boutin, Technology Writer)

"Kerry should be put in the pillory for his inability to hold up on principle under any kind of pressure." (Christopher Hitchens, Contributor of Irony)

"I can't pretend to like John Kerry. He's pompous, he's an opportunist, and he's indecisive." (Timothy Noah, Senior Writer)

[the Real fifi]

kausfiles notes, Hitchens also endorsed Bush (I think in the Nation)

[BigSkyFreeper]

It shows there is no enthusiasm for the guy within his own base.

[cooldog]

Sad. Just ...... sad.

[ambrose]

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041108&s=hitchens

---

Why I'm (Slightly) for Bush
by CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

[from the November 8, 2004 issue]

-snip-

[jennyjenny]

Didn't anyone tell these people that Kerry was in Vietnam?

[TheLawyerFormerlyKnownAsAl]

"kausfiles notes, Hitchens also endorsed Bush (I think in the Nation)"

He probably also endorsed Nader somewhere. He's irrelevant.

[elizabetty]

I can't believe these people are willing to play RUSSIAN ROULETE with the safety of this country! It is shameful and irresponsible.

[vox_freedom]

So these Slate people are in favor of killing innocent geese, by shooting a shotgun?
Unbelievable.

[Lancey Howard]

Isn't Slate a pack of liberal scumbags? I thought Slate went under long ago?
Anyways, I don't think anybody cares who those nobodies endorse.

[jpf]

Christopher is just goofing on this, that's all. On Russert's show in a more serious moment he said he supported the re-election of the President.

What he was really doing is pointing out what an ass Kerry has made of himself in this campaign.

[spitlana]

Not surprised. Hitchens flip flops worse than Kerry. Can't stand commentators that blow hot and cold. They drip arrogance as if any viewer (reader) cared a whit for their opinion.

[faithincowboys]

Any chance, Col. Joe Anderson is a friend of Wes Clark?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/europe/jan-june99/kla_6-23.html

[Dolphy]

So I'll take a chance on Kerry, but if he wins I'll skip the victory party. Too many of his supporters have proven as divisive, dishonest, and hateful as they imagine their bogeyman Karl Rove to be

How can Kerry ever hope to lead a country where even his supporters don't like him? How can any journalist endorse him, at a time of war, with such serious reservations?

[JohnBDay]

Hitchens actually reminds of a guy I was talking to today. He said that he didn't like Kerry's Senate record but said he wouldn't get away with that kind of stuff as President and that's why he was voting for him. I would never take that kind of risk and I hope the American people don't either.

[Psycho_Bunny]

"I'll pull the lever for Kerry, if for nothing else than to defeat the misconception that being contemplative is somehow paralyzing." (Kevin Arnovitz, Fray Editor)

If there was a small woodland animal called the "North American Pinhead", it's territorial call would sound exactly like that sentence.

[cgk]

Hitchens on Russert - 9/25/04:

Talking about Kerry's supporters:

CH: I heard that people were sending the checks to the $10,000-a-plate dinner, or whatever it was--they were sending the check, they wouldn't come to the dinner. That's too much. "I'll pay you not to have me to dinner with the nominee." That may be a rumor, but it did appear in the NY Times fairly authoritatively, and it seems somehow horribly true.

[CobaltBlue]

Well, heck with Hitchens then. He's not giving any intelligent reason to vote for Kerry, it's just fluff.

I expected better.

[cgk]

BTW. You owe me a new tagline.

[Diddle E. Squat]

That's one of the funniest posts I've read in a good while.