Bill Kristol battles Twitter, Iran while bailing on Sarah Palin
Conservative talking head Bill Kristol is used to making enemies from liberals, but now the fights are in every direction: Twitter, Charlie Hebdo, Iran and now is bailing on Sarah Palin.
The Iranian government has condemned the newest cover of Charlie Hebdo, which depicts the prophet Mohammed holding a sign reading “Je suis Charlie” and with the title saying “that all is forgiven.”
Bill Kristol appeared on Morning Joe where he called out the hypocrisy of the Iranian Foreign Minister.
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“The Iranian Foreign Minister condemning Charlie Hebdo, that’s rich,” said Kristol. “Iran began the business in 1989 of deciding that they could issue a fatwa in other countries. This is unbelievable! It’s one thing for them to have different views of free speech and blasphemy in their country. They are trying to export that to the West.”
Palin no more
In the days since Sarah Palin delivered her rambling, often-incoherent speech at the Iowa Freedom Summit this past weekend, conservatives have been rushing to marginalize the former Alaskan governor as a serious presidential candidate.
Kristol described Palin as a “huge political talent” and a potentially “formidable” candidate for president on Morning Joe last year and now retracts his support.
“Did I say it that recently?” Kristol wondered to Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty. “The name Sarah Palin hasn’t come up in the past three to six months…. Maybe the speech Saturday was just a confirmation of her no longer being a major player, at least in these circles.”
Kristol only joined Twitter last month, but the Internet is already calling for his resignation.
His advertising for a podcast from his magazine, The Weekly Standard, instigated over 100 users flooded Kristol’s mentions with the same simple message over and over again: “delete your account.”
The first reply came from Salon’s Simon Maloy, and from there the message snowballed, some posting in French (“effacez votre comte”), others spelling it out in the most basic terms possible (“delete your account on the twitter website”).
In recent weeks Kristol has drawn the ire of liberal Twitter for his conservative views, with users immediately calling him every nasty name in the book, and, in some instances, purposely confusing him with the actor Billy Crystal.
But now, with the “delete your account” campaign, Twitter seems to have found a more subtle and hilarious way to troll the neoconservative.
“I’m enjoying [Twitter] so far,” Kristol wrote in an email to Talking Points Memo in October. “What’s not to like?”
