Bill Kristol – I Recommend The Politics Of Fear

Think Progress
Monday, February 25, 2008

This morning on Fox News Sunday, New York Times columnist Bill Kristol recommended that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) employ the “politics of fear” to attack Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL):

KRISTOL: [Obama’s] riding a wave of euphoria. She [Clinton] needs to puncture it. The way you puncture euphoria is reality, or to be more blunt, fear. I recommend to Senator Clinton the politics of fear.

Kristol explained that his fear-mongering political strategy would focus on Iran. He recommended that Clinton say the following about Obama: “He wants to negotiate on January 21st with Ahmadinejad. Here’s what Ahmadinejad has said about blowing up Israel.”
Watch it:

Kristol has invested heavily in a strategy of convincing policymakers to bomb Iran. Here’s some examples of what Kristol has advocated:

– “We could in a military confrontation with Iran much sooner than people expect.”

– The Iranian people would embrace “the right use of targeting military force.”

– President Bush “could easily build political support” for an attack on Iran “at the beginning of 2008.”

Because the concept of engaging Iran is a threat to Kristol’s agenda, he appears desperate to do all he can to delegitimize the idea of negotiation. As Kristol’s Fox News colleage Juan Williams has said, all Kristol wants is “war, war, war.”