Dr. Shapiro and Mr. Shapiro

There's an interesting article today by Ben Shapiro. Unusually I don't have much to make fun of in it; frankly he's spot on in his analysis (although wrong in his prescription). His article uses a life boat metaphor - if a war (or any policy really) is going south in a hurry, what do you do? Particularly if a guy from your party is driving the boat? Well, you can either stick with the captain (President Bush) or run to the lifeboats.

That's where the conservative movement currently stands. In the midst of a war on terror, three years into the rebuilding effort in Iraq, many conservatives are edging toward the lifeboats. And with President Bush's United Arab Emirates port fiasco dominating the headlines, it's easier than ever for those conservatives to position themselves to the right of Bush on national security -- and as close as possible to the exits.

Simple, straightforward, and largely correct. I predict that for the next couple of years conservatives will try to explain how Bush's policies weren't really conservative (which is a fair point, since they weren't). Of course I also predict they will continue trying to focus America's attention on how much they hate liberals, so it's not like I am going to join their side.

I think the article is more interesting in that it does represent the other side of young Ben. I think Ben is torn between models - does he want to be William Saffire or Rush Limbaugh? George Will or Ann Coulter? Does he want to be a calm reasoned conservative political commentator? Or does he want to be a fire breathing demagogue? Tough choice. I suspect, based on history, that hatred of Liberals will win out in the end. And, frankly, that route suits his limited talents a bit more.