The neoconservative’s very public campaign to recruit a third-party candidate to run against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton started off with high hopes (Mitt Romney!), quickly settled for less (Ben Sasse, James Mattis), before landing on the downright puzzling (David French?). The whole project has been an exercise in wish fulfillment, one which Kristol is clinging to in inimitable fashion:
Here in Israel, reading about possible @DavidAFrench candidacy, thought of Herzl: Im tirtzu, ein zo agada. If you will it, it is no dream.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) June 1, 2016
But in the process, he has managed to turn himself into one of the most prominent members in Trump’s pantheon of losers and haters, earning disparaging shout-outs at Trump’s rallies and television interviews, not to mention Twitter.
If dummy Bill Kristol actually does get a spoiler to run as an Independent, say good bye to the Supreme Court!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2016
In other words, Kristol has emerged as Trump’s last true bete noire in the Republican Party. He has far greater name recognition than David French, and represents the interests of Bill Kristol far better than anyone Bill Kristol has tried to recruit. Why doesn’t he throw his own hat into the ring? Sure, he may not even qualify for the ballot in many states. But as Winston Churchill, Kristol’s idol, once said, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm”—a sentiment that Kristol apparently lives by.