Unexpected Candor From Bill Kristol By: Mark W Adams

Even he knows he sucks.

Commencement speeches are hard. I gave one at a college about seven years ago. I labored over it, consulting orations from years past, writing and rewriting drafts. I ended up with remarks that struck me — even while I delivered them — as banal and platitudinous.

I always get the feeling from Kristol's beady eyed smirk that he just knows he's a hack and getting away with being paid to spew his wankerific nonsense is a joke even to him.

Oh, and Bill's point about Barack Obama not extolling the pampered student body of a private New England college to sign up for military service shows why he's so bad at giving commencement addresses himself. Communications 101: Know Your Audience! Go ahead and try to tell these upper-crust elite kids, about to be handed a sheep's skin representing unlimited possibilities, they should "be all they can be" and marvel at how quickly you get laughed off the stage, or get a pie in your face.

Besides, my guess is that our military culture would consider kids from such liberal arts schools outsiders anyway. They wouldn't want most of these bleeding-hearts any more than they would want a prissy bitch like Bill Kristol in the ranks. But let's not allow a bit of reality get in the way of a good cheap shot from a chickenhawk hack like Kristol.