William Kristol’s last Times column (yes, it’s Monday and too early for Champagne, those of you on the Upper West Side) was wistful. “All good things must come to an end,” he wrote at the top of his column. “Jan. 20, 2009, marked the end of a conservative era.” If you skip through the next few paragraphs of knee-jerk bloviating, you’ll make it to the part where he talks about Obama. “Liberalism’s fate rests to an astonishing degree on his shoulders,” the Weekly Standard editor muses. “Can Obama reshape liberalism to be, as it was under F.D.R., a fighting faith, unapologetically patriotic and strong in the defense of liberty? That would be a service to our country.” Wow, that almost sounded, well, hopeful. Maybe that dinner at George Will’s house made a difference after all?
