http://www.nationalreview.com/node/436278/print Trump and Hillary: Not That Bad
Reading an op-ed page, reading the election
By Conrad Black — June 8, 2016
As the Wall Street Journal has the most interesting comment pages of any newspaper in the English- or French-speaking worlds (the only languages in which I am competent to judge), and its contributors have followed a more thoughtful and dignified trajectory in following the Trump phenomenon than most, it is often a useful read both for the merit of the opinions and as a measurement of the process of reconciling thoughtful Republicans with their apparent nominee. As someone who hopes for much better government than the last two administrations and the latter Clinton term provided, I hope that Trump and his Republican opponents can patch things up seamlessly. It seems to be coming together with the congressional leadership, but the serious commentariat are late bloomers.
It is painful to take issue with my cordial former colleague (at the Jerusalem Post) Bret Stephens, almost always a joy to read, but I thought he miscalled the campaign in his piece on May 31. The first part of the column was devoted to Donald Trump’s familiar argument that the U.S. should not have invaded Iraq, and that, having done so, it should have “kept the oil.” Mr. Stephens, as only he can do, quickly aggregated this assertion, which, as he writes, Trump has made often, into the sequence of divinations that starts with the impossibility of taking the oil other than by “massively garrisoning the Middle East,” the region where the candidate has repeatedly said we should avoid involvement.
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