Krauthammer: Right's Thorn in Obama's Side

In 2006, Charles Krauthammer urged Barack Obama to run for president, guaranteeing he’d lose. That didn’t exactly work out, but Obama’s rise has been good for the Washington Post columnist, who has become the central anti-Obama voice, writes Ben Smith in Politico. His writing drips with a clarity and confidence the fractured right craves. “He’s the most important conservative columnist right now,” says David Brooks of the New York Times.

In a five-part series on the “unified theory of Obamaism,” Krauthammer laid out what he sees as the president’s dangerous, radical agenda. Yet he harbors a certain respect for Obama. “This is a formidable, impressive, interesting man,” he said. “When I criticize him, it’s because I think his ideas are misguided.” He’s less impressed by conservative resistance thus far: “It’s completely incoherent, fractured, and inconsistent.” (More Charles Krauthammer stories.)