Bobo’s Greatest Misses

In comments to the Brooks thread below, my colleague reminds us of the very pinnacle of Boboian hackery: his defense of Bush’s casually ambitious scheme to utterly transform Iraqi state and society via a (purportedly brief and inexpensive) military occupation by appealing to…Michael Oakeshott. It’s hard to imagine a bigger mismatch between philosopher and political project–I can’t wait for his forthcoming column using Rousseau to defend Madisonian checks and balances and Nietzsche to defend Christian ethics. Philosophy talkin’-person Hilzoy explains (in the context in yet another invocation) why Bobo was several dozen IQ points short of an idea with that one.