Oh, Bill Kristol, is there nothing you cannot get terribly, terribly wrong?

Jane Mayer's story on the rise of Sarah Palin in this week's New Yorker is an excellent read.  She notes that, while Palin may have been a total unknown to many political junkies, the right-wing bigwigs certainly knew who she was and had been pushing McCain to pick this real-live Freeper for months.  Chief among them was America's favorite unintentional comedian, Billy Kristol. 

The other journalists who met Palin offered similarly effusive praise: Michael Gerson called her “a mix between Annie Oakley and Joan of Arc.” The most ardent promoter, however, was Kristol, and his enthusiasm became the talk of Alaska’s political circles. According to Simpson, Senator Stevens told her that “Kristol was really pushing Palin” in Washington before McCain picked her. Indeed, as early as June 29th, two months before McCain chose her, Kristol predicted on “Fox News Sunday” that “McCain’s going to put Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, on the ticket.” He described her as “fantastic,” saying that she could go one-on-one against Obama in basketball, and possibly siphon off Hillary Clinton’s supporters. He pointed out that she was a “mother of five” and a reformer. “Go for the gold here with Sarah Palin,” he said. The moderator, Chris Wallace, finally had to ask Kristol, “Can we please get off Sarah Palin?

They could put Kristol's face next to "fail" in the dictionary, but that's somehow selling him short.