RIP, Charles Krauthammer
We expected his imminent death because he announced it himself about two weeks before it happened, in a heartfelt farewell letter to all his readers and listeners and admirers. I was all three, and I will miss this brilliant, witty, unique, and courageous man.
By the way, Krauthammer was a political changer. He told the story here.
RIP.
A great mind and greater heart.
“If you would not be forgotten,
When you are dead and rotten,
Then write things worth the reading,
Or do things worth the writing.”
— Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Krauthammer’s writings will, I am sure, survive him a long, long time. He was truly one of the great ones.
He will be long remembered, and greatly missed.
He listened to the doctors prediction and his body shut down due to quantum biofeedback. Too bad.
Dr. Krauthammer is one of my favorites. I especially enjoyed the attitude he brought to the discussion. He had his opinion, he would give it, he would listen to the other side, he would counter argue, and he would change his mind if he heard a good argument (which was rare!). He did this, from what I observed, with a sense of joy and fraternity. I don’t think I ever saw him get angry or vitriolic. Maybe a little exasperated on occasion. He seemed to genuinely enjoy the battle and appreciate his interlocutors.
RIP.
A fine human being and personally courageous but IMO, one whose time had passed in assessing our current domestic reality. Which includes BTW, Krauthammer’s failure to grasp Islam’s inherent nature.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/01/14/krauthammer_everyone_knows_the_difference_between_islam_and_radical_islam_except_obama.html
I came late to conservatism and undoubtedly that affected my perceptions of Krauthammer. His most incisive commentary appeared to me to have passed.
I found his commentary on Obama to be too polite, indicative of a failure to see deeply into Obama’s motivations. I suspect he saw Obama as a perhaps somewhat more radical version of McGovern.
Overlooking Obama’s connection to Bill Ayers’ Marxism, Jeremiah Wright’s racist hate and Farrakhan’s embrace of Islam as a means of leveraging racist hate into societal power and most significantly, what those connections revealed about Obama’s deepest motivations.
That perception was solidified in Krauthammer’s commentary on Donald Trump. Clearly he couldn’t get past Trump’s bombast and vulgarity. As though courteous manners were a never-to-be-relinquished prerequisite for Presidential office, failing to see that Leftist inroads required and demanded an unapologetic street fighter rather than a gentleman boxer that would never kick an opponent when he’s down. Even when that opponent intended to kill him…
Krauthammer appears to me to have failed to fully grasp that with the rise of Obama and his supporters into dominance, the American Left that most fully embraced the “dialectic of the Left” is fully committed to the American Republic’s destruction, which “fundamental transformation” is code for… Krauthammer’s comments demonstrated that he failed to appreciate that America faced mortal threats from the domestic Left and Islam itself that were every bit as totalitarian as were the Japanese and Nazis of WWII.
“When I am the weaker, I ask for mercy because that is your principle. But when I am the stronger, I show no mercy because that is my principle”
RIP
I’ve always been in awe of the courage, resolve and fortitude he mustered after the diving accident at age 22. I can’t even imagine being able to do that. Plus, he was one of the most brilliant television commentators/pundits I’ve ever seen (and he was always a happy warrior). I’m trying to think of who else in the field has been in his league intellectually- WFB? Christopher Hitchens? I’m sure there are many others but I’m at a loss…
May he Rest in Peace.
Reading about his love of baseball is a delight — see this piece about his devotion to the Washington Nationals team:
Krauth’s political aspirations and effects won’t be much relevant to his final review or initial review of his time spent on this plane of existence.
That’s not what his mission is going to be rated off of, what political victories he may or may not have helped contribute to.
I try not to be rude online, but I am going to break my rule here. An analysis that suggests that one is smarter than Charles Krauthammer is a poor analysis.
Here’s a good Krauthammer column that pushes back against Obama’s baloney very successfully (in this case, he addresses the absurd “you didn’t build that” comment). He doesn’t pull any intellectual punches, but he isn’t the least bit impolite. I really admire that ability (and I find it very difficult to do).
https://www.nationalreview.com/2012/07/did-state-make-you-great-charles-krauthammer/