UM, WHAT'S YOUR ALLUSION HERE, MR. PRESIDENT? IT'S SO CRYPTIC AND OBSCURE, I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT

William Kristol, being willfully obtuse in today's New York Times:

... We don't really know how Barack Obama will govern. What we have so far, mainly, is an Inaugural Address.... Obama's speech was unabashedly pro-American and implicitly conservative.

... He spoke almost not at all about rights (he had one mention of "the rights of man," paired with "the rule of law" in the context of a discussion of the Constitution)....

Yeah, right -- that was just a dispassionate bit of constitutional exegesis. It couldn't have possibly been a specific allusion to a present-day real-world situation:

... As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers -- (applause) -- our Founding Fathers, faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man -- a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience sake. (Applause.) ...

< Kristol > Torture? You think Obama was referring to torture?! Really? (Smacks forehead) Gosh, you may be right! That never even occurred to me! < / Kristol >

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And yes, I should have noted that this is Kristol's last column for the Times. I agree with Ahab: "This'll have a painful multiplier effect around the blogs, believe you me."