# Bill Kristol's "Independent Candidate" - who will it be? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 30, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048 "2016-05-30T01:25:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/41 "2016-05-31T21:43:35Z")
I predict that Bill Kristol is referring to David French and will leak the information 45 minutes ago. David who? Bloomberg: [Kristol Eyes Conservative Lawyer David French for Independent Presidential Run](http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-05-31/kristol-eyes-conservative-lawyer-for-independent-presidential-run). PS: It’s funny that Kristol was able to wind Trump up though. Nice troll, Bill. PPS: And check out these qualifications! According to the website of National Review, where French is a staff writer, he is a constitutional lawyer, a recipient of the Bronze Star, and an author of several books who lives in Columbia, Tenn., with his wife Nancy and three children. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/42 "2016-05-31T21:47:56Z")
Bloomberg reports that the person Kristol expects to announce a run is David French. French is a writer for the National Review, a veteran, and a constitutional lawyer. He has never held elected office, has no fundraising machine, and declined to confirm Bloomberg’s report. [http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-05-31/kristol-eyes-conservative-lawyer-for-independent-presidential-run](http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-05-31/kristol-eyes-conservative-lawyer-for-independent-presidential-run) ETA: Damn! Four minutes late! ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/43 "2016-05-31T21:54:51Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > ETA: Damn! Four minutes late! That’s ok: I was _running_, _sprinting_ to the Dope when I learned of this punch line. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/44 "2016-05-31T21:59:07Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > We are talking about the guy who played Miracle Max, right? It just so happens that the Republican party is only MOSTLY dead. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/45 "2016-05-31T22:02:53Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Bloomberg reports that the person Kristol expects to announce a run is David French. Well, color me impressed! That’s the kind of name power that should have both the Donald and the Hillary quaking in their boots. [QUOTE=Ballotpedia] In order to access the ballot nationwide, it is estimated that an independent presidential candidate in 2016 would need to collect more than 880,000 signatures. California is expected to require independent candidates to collect 178,039 signatures, more than any other state. Tennessee is expected to require 275 signatures, fewer than any other state. [/Quote] Here’s a question. If this tidbit from [Ballotpedia](https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_access_for_presidential_candidates)is true, where does David French expect to find 275 signatures, much less 880,000? ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/46 "2016-05-31T22:02:58Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > That’s ok: I was _running_, _sprinting_ to the Dope when I learned of this punch line. 😃 I coulda beat you if I hadn’t been typing on my phone with my fat clumsy thumbs! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/47 "2016-05-31T22:17:27Z")
Somehow I still feel that my “full of shit” response is correct. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/48 "2016-05-31T22:21:24Z")
It’s typical of Bill Kristol that he had someone in mind who not only isn’t running, but had no apparent intention of ever running and was taken a bit aback by the suggestion. Kristol continues to embody the avatar of the god of wrongness. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/49 "2016-05-31T22:22:46Z")
Bill Kristol’s waxing nostalgic about reliving the neocon era, but his musings are nothing more than fantasies. Kristol has as much influence as any other establishment neocon republican, which is not much. The republicans have a choice: get behind Trump, knowing he’s probably not going to lead the republican party to a good place, or simply sit this one out and hope that he loses while saying all the right things in public. It seems to me that the absence of republicans at the convention suggests that the GOP high brass is betting against the Donald and privately hoping Hillary wins so they can have four more years of committee hearings, cooked up scandals, and another possible run at impeachment of a democrat. Until this country wises up and understands that it needs to eliminate the republican party at the local level, we’ll never have the kind of functional government that we can at least not be embarrassed by. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/50 "2016-05-31T22:28:47Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > I coulda beat you if I hadn’t been typing on my phone with my fat clumsy thumbs! :mad: I feel your pain. I also struggle daily with the challenges due to massively overgrown hands. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/51 "2016-05-31T22:37:20Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I feel your pain. I also struggle daily with the challenges due to massively overgrown hands. You _do_ know that Trump’s first act as President will be to intern all men with hands larger than his own–for the sake of National Security. (“National Security” in the sense that the only way he can feel Secure is if he’s surrounded by men with hands smaller than his own.) ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/52 "2016-05-31T22:39:06Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > It’s typical of Bill Kristol that he had someone in mind who not only isn’t running, but had no apparent intention of ever running and was taken a bit aback by the suggestion. > > Kristol continues to embody the avatar of the god of wrongness. Something we can all agree on. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/53 "2016-05-31T22:52:23Z")
Buffy and Jody like Mr. French ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/54 "2016-05-31T23:45:53Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > According to the website of National Review, where French is a staff writer, he is a constitutional lawyer, a recipient of the Bronze Star, and an author of several books who lives in Columbia, Tenn., with his wife Nancy and three children. You know who else had a wife Nancy and three children? Well, I mean if you don’t count that kid that he adopted with Jane Wyman and then forgot about… ---
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/55 "2016-05-31T23:58:42Z")
I feel sorry for Bill Kristol; he is a patriot who cares about American security and its role in the world, unlike Trump, but he needs to learn to give up. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/56 "2016-06-01T00:52:47Z")
> [@DerekMichaels00](#): > > I feel sorry for Bill Kristol; he is a patriot who cares about American security and its role in the world, unlike Trump, but he needs to learn to give up. He cares. He’s always WRONG, but he cares. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/57 "2016-06-01T00:55:36Z")
Vox on David French: > **[Bill Kristol has finally found the person to beat Donald Trump, and it's ......](https://www.vox.com/2016/5/31/11824280/david-french-bill-kristol)** > > Sure, why not, let this guy be president. Apparently French writes more about social conservatism (eg he opposes sending women into combat) than the usual neoconservative stuff. [INDENT]The most interesting thing about the selection, besides the fact that Kristol has apparently given up on putting forward a halfway credible candidate, is that French is a more committed social conservative than economic conservative or hawk. Republican concerns that Trump is too soft on Social Security, or insufficiently committed to neoconservative dogma on foreign affairs, have gotten a lot of airtime. But naturally real social conservatives aren’t hugely pumped about a Republican nominee who was a regular guest on Howard Stern’s show and called avoiding STDs his “personal Vietnam.” [/INDENT] But wait! Maybe it’s a head fake! Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg View tweets, “Gotta say: If my real 3rd party candidate was some one-term former backbench member of the House, I might leak someone even more obscure 1st.” Then again, Bernstein also wonders about French’s long form birth certificate so tongues remain in cheeks. Also of note: Kristol vetted Palin in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_from\_CB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/278dde/32.png) [@Alex\_from\_CB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_from_CB)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/58 "2016-06-01T01:31:15Z")
How about James Webb? ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/59 "2016-06-01T01:33:20Z")
A staff writer for the National Review? Yeah, because the GOP’S problem this cycle was it’s candidates were insufficiently full of crap. ---
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048/60 "2016-06-01T02:24:33Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > He cares. He’s always WRONG, but he cares. but his ideas are better than Trump OR Bernie. Both Trump and Bernie are isolationists who don’t get that America must lead the world, so moral points to Kristol. Kristol’s big cause is defense; he would’ve done himself well to get on board with Max Boot, Bob Kagan and a few fellow turncoat GOPs, and let Hillary use their support to bolster her national security cred for the general (and also not need as much Sanders fans in exchange). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-kristols-independent-candidate-who-will-it-be/756048.md?page=4)