New York Times columnist, Bill Kristol, epitomizes neoconservatism. He is a direct descendant of the neocons' founding father and mother, Iriving Kristol and Getrude Himmelfarb. He is a de facto member of the other big neocon family (Norman Podhoretz, his wife Midge Decter, son John Podhoretz and step-son-in-law Elliot Abrams). He is also the most prominent and prolific neocon.

In his Times column today, Kristol says that for him, the number one issue in the 2008 election is Iraq and that it is their respective positions on the "surge" that should decide the election.

"Early 2007 was as close as we're going to get to a commander in chief moment for Senators McCain and Obama. They had to make a judgment in a difficult real-world situation -- not on the healed planet of Obama's dreams. With the Iraq war going badly, McCain took the lead in calling for a change in military strategy and a surge of troops. Obama, by contrast, went along with his party in urging withdrawal. Now, 18 months later, McCain seems pretty clearly to have been right," Kristol writes.

In other words, judge the candidates on the issue of Iraq and vote accordingly.

It is worth noting that Kristol is an orginal McCain supporter. He supported him in 2000, largely because he trusted McCain to carry out the neocon blueprint more than he did Bush. Happily for Kristol, the war on terror came along and Bush grabbed the neocon standard and ran with it.

But Bush is not the Kristol ideal. The other day VP Cheney's daughter, Liz, spoke at the AIPAC conference and blasted the Bush-Cheney administration for not being tough enough on Hamas, Hezbollah and other Middle Eastern bad guys. She even blasted Israel for not going all the way in Lebanon during the war -- she meant all the way to Damascus or Tehran.

Kristol is on the same page as Cheney. He likes Bush but thinks that he's been a bit of a wuss. (He's hoping that the US or Israel bomb Iran before January but is not optimistic).

John McCain is not only the neocons' last hope but their best hope. The Cheney=Kristol-Perle-Feith-Krauthammer-Bolton gang does not consider the war a failure. They would send the 4000 dead there again, if they could. Their only problem with America's failed policies, as with Israel's, is that they are just not aggressive enough.

For them, this election means the death of their dreams or the last opportunity to secure
the realm (all their realms) forever. They have learned nothing except that it's all good. More, more.