It's so wonderful to see leading conservatives supporting Obama -- and turning on each others, with long knives...

In recent weeks some prominent conservative intellectuals seem to have discovered they have two hands after all. In column after column, these writers have alternately praised the virtues of John McCain and Sarah Palin and lamented their shortcomings.

The syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, for example, wrote in National Review on Sept. 26 that Governor Palin is “clearly out of her league” and should bow out of the campaign. (The conservative biweekly chose not to run a subsequent column in which Ms. Parker offered advice to Senator Barack Obama on how to win votes in Appalachia.)

On Oct. 4, one of the most influential conservative pundits, the Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, rapped Senator McCain for his “frenetic improvisation” and, in what some interpreted as an endorsement of Senator Obama, praised his “first-class intellect and a first-class temperament,” adding that these strengths “will likely be enough to make him president.”

This came after another conservative beacon, George F. Will, compared the “Palin bubble” to the irrational exuberance of the deflated high- tech and housing bubbles and said Senator McCain was “behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high” in the way he responded to the financial crisis. He all but pronounced the Republican ticket finished after the final presidential debate last Wednesday night.

And then, to top it off, the novelist and humorist Christopher Buckley endorsed Mr. Obama. This decision, coming from the son of William F. Buckley Jr., one of the intellectual founders of the modern conservative movement, climaxed what seemed to be a mood of growing discomfort on the right.

No doubt these are all significant voices. But it seems fair to ask whether — in an election in which many millions will vote — the assertions of the opinion and chattering class really matter.

One answer is that for more than half a century the conservative movement has insisted that “ideas have consequences,” which implies that writers and thinkers have played a major part in shaping the fortunes of the right.

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October 19, 2008

The Nation

Unease in the Conservative Commentariat

By PATRICIA COHEN

www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/weekinreview/19cohen.html

In recent weeks some prominent conservative intellectuals seem to have discovered they have two hands after all. In column after column, these writers have alternately praised the virtues of John McCain and Sarah Palin and lamented their shortcomings.