I wasn’t expecting any good to come out of Kristol’s desperate search for an independent presidential candidate….but this is so, so much dumber than even I was expecting.
I like David French a lot — he’s a smart, serious conservative, a combat vet, a religious liberty lawyer, and one of National Review’s better analysts. But if an actual officeholder or past candidate’s chances of winning the election were already extremely remote, how is somebody with no name recognition outside of right-wing wonk circles going to make a dent?
Don’t tell me about pie-in-the-sky scenarios about the Electoral College turning the decision over to the House (which not only would require an absurdly specific win/loss ratio to happen, but would probably result in Trump anyway). Tell me how this makes President Hillary Clinton less likely. Tell me how conservatives recover from a leftist 6-3 (or worse) Supreme Court majority and enough illegals-made-voters to give Democrats a permanent national majority.
I get it. I hate Trump too. I stayed on board with #NeverTrump for as long as I could. I’ve gone through all the anger, confusion, depression, and desperation over how horribly wrong this election has gone. But after gaming out how all the scenarios play out, I simply can’t conclude that staying home or voting independent/3rd-party/write-in would end in anything but a net disaster for the country’s future.
All we can do now is bite the bullet. It pains me to say it, but right now the cretinous orange buffoon is the only weapon at our disposal with which to stop Hillary Clinton from giving the Left a lifetime stranglehold on the federal government. So vote for him, hope that his selfish political interest (NOT nonexistent personal principles) force him to follow through on his biggest promises, prepare to go back to #NeverTrump in 2020 if he betrays us (hell, let’s plan on primarying his second term anyway), and spend the next several years fixing our mistakes as a movement that got us into this mess in the first place, so we’ll never squander an opportunity like a Ted Cruz again.
Conservative Standards 
The problem with David French is the same as it is for Ted Cruz. A key component for all successful candidates for President since 1960 is the ability to project an aura of authority and comfort ON CAMERA. Being able to improvise well and be comfortable on camera matters at least as much as policy positions, in terms of how people vote.
On camera, Ted Cruz projects tremendous self-centeredness. He’s so smug and smart, it makes people want to punch him. I contend that doomed his candidacy. And David French, for all his great resume, comes across as a whiny, nasally-voiced think tank pundit with excessive sibilance. Most people would see him on camera and go, “Oh no, no, no way” and never even get to his policy positions. It’s sad to have to admit that things like an aura of “manliness” matter so much, but ethically and intellectually compromised candidates, including Trump, get support and votes just because they “seem like winners”. Since French isn’t even on the same planet in terms of name recognition, first impressions will count more than usual.
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