BEST OF THE WEB TODAY

He Stood Athwart History
William F. Buckley is dead at 82. Kathryn Lopez, editor of National Review online, delivers the sad news:

I'm devastated to report that our dear friend, mentor, leader, and founder William F. Buckley Jr., died this morning in his study in Stamford, Connecticut.

He died while at work; if he had been given a choice on how to depart this world, I suspect that would have been exactly it. At home, still devoted to the war of ideas.

Alas, whatever he was working on, he missed the deadline.

"Mr. Buckley's greatest achievement was making conservatism--not just electoral Republicanism, but conservatism as a system of ideas--respectable in liberal post-World War II America," reports the New York Times in its obituary.

Buckley burst onto the scene in 1951, just a year out of college, publishing "God and Man at Yale." As Peter Viereck wrote in a Times review, "Nominally his book is about education at Yale. Actually, it is about American politics":

Buckley attacks "statism and atheism" on the Yale campus. Yet what is his alternative? Nothing more inspiring than the most sterile Old Guard brand of Republicanism, far to the right of Taft. . . .

As gadfly against the smug Comrade Blimps of the left, this important, symptomatic and widely hailed book is a necessary counterbalance. However, its outworn Old Guard antithesis to the outworn Marxist thesis is not the liberty security synthesis the future cries for. Some day, being intelligent and earnest, Buckley may give us the hard-won wisdom of synthesis. For that, he will first need to add, to his existing virtues, three new ones: sensitivity, compassion, and an inkling of the tragic paradoxes of la condition humaine.

Four years later, Buckley started National Review, with an understated founding statement:

Let's face it: Unlike Vienna, it seems altogether possible that did National Review not exist, no one would have invented it. The launching of a conservative weekly journal of opinion in a country widely assumed to be a bastion of conservatism at first glance looks like a work of supererogation, rather like publishing a royalist weekly within the walls of Buckingham Palace. It is not that, of course; if National Review is superfluous, it is so for very different reasons: It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.

National Review is out of place, in the sense that the United Nations and the League of Women Voters and the New York Times and Henry Steele Commager are in place. It is out of place because, in its maturity, literate America rejected conservatism in favor of radical social experimentation. Instead of covetously consolidating its premises, the United States seems tormented by its tradition of fixed postulates having to do with the meaning of existence, with the relationship of the state to the individual, of the individual to his neighbor, so clearly enunciated in the enabling documents of our Republic.

As NR's editors note in paying tribute to him today, Buckley's and his magazine's influence proved far-reaching:

If ever an institution were the lengthened shadow of one man, this publication is his. So we hope it will not be thought immodest for us to say that Buckley has had more of an impact on the political life of this country--and a better one--than some of our presidents. He created modern conservatism as an intellectual and then a political movement. He kept it from drifting into the fever swamps. And he gave it a wit, style, and intelligence that earned the respect and friendship even of his adversaries. (To know Buckley was to be reminded that certain people have a talent for friendship.)

We knew Buckley a bit and agree with that assessment. In a Commentary essay, also published today on WSJ.com, Buckley tells the story of how he worked with Sen. Barry Goldwater to marginalize the John Birch Society--a delicate matter for Goldwater, who told Buckley that "every other person in Phoenix is a member."

Goldwater's 1964 campaign of course was a bust. He carried only his native Arizona and--on the strength of his opposition to the Civil Rights Act--five Southern states. But the liberal excesses and missteps of the ensuing 16 years helped set the stage for Ronald Reagan's victory in 1980, arguably the high-water mark of 20th century conservatism.

Buckley was skeptical of the current president, as he told The Wall Street Journal's Joseph Rago in 2005:

Mr. Buckley evinces a keen sense of disappointment with the fortunes of the movement his journal did so much to shape. The trouble (if it can be called that) is that conservatism is no longer sutured together by "the galvanizing thread that the Soviet Union provided. And for that reason I think conservatism has become a little bit slothful. It could be very decisive when the alternative was the apocalyptic reordering presented by the Soviet Union. . . . But in the absence of those challenges, there were attenuations. Those attenuations at this point haven't been resolved very persuasively." . . .

Mr. Buckley is . . . skeptical of the presidency of George Bush, who, he says, was not elected "as a vessel of the conservative faith." He returns to a formulation he has used before: "Bush is conservative, but he is not a conservative." The distinction is not unimportant; it suggests a way of approaching the world with a conservative disposition but having devoted no particularly methodical thought to the subject--perhaps a bit too in thrall to the formalisms of Republican discourse.

On learning of Buckley's death, reader James Trager wrote: "God will welcome him, Man should be proud of him, and Yale will breathe a sigh of relief." May he rest in peace.

Mrs. Clinton Concedes
Democratic front-runner Barack Obama and his challenger, the formerly inevitable Hillary Clinton, debated in Cleveland last night ahead of Tuesday's Ohio primary. Some have speculated that this will be the duo's last debate, that Obama may have the nomination all but wrapped up this time next week. Mrs. Clinton acknowledged as much, in the midst of a question about Nafta, that she will not be the next president:

Tim Russert: You said it was good on balance for New York and America in 2004, and now you're in Ohio and your words are much different, Senator. The record is very clear.

Mrs. Clinton: Well, I--I--you don't have all the record because you can go back and look at what I've said consistently. And I haven't just said things; I have actually voted to toughen trade agreements, to try to put more teeth into our enforcement mechanisms. And I will continue to do so.

The only way she can continue to vote is by remaining in the Senate. It's a subtle concession, but a concession.

Columnist Tony Blankley looks ahead to a McCain-Obama general election matchup, writing:

Republicans owe Hillary our gratitude. She has road-tested several versions of attacks on Obama that don't work. . . . The overall lesson to take away from the Democratic primary season so far is that big charges against Obama backfire on the accuser. . . .

If Obama can be defeated, it will not be with a meat cleaver but with a surgeon's scalpel. This is difficult in a national campaign in which the public, almost of necessity, must be communicated with by slogans. But Obama is the master [of] responding to blustery charges with wry, dry irony.

The Republicans must systematically make a hundred tightly argued, irrefutable critiques of very specific examples of Obama's policy being wrong for at least 60 percent of America.

Not bad advice on the whole, although we'd caution Republicans against overlearning the lessons of Mrs. Clinton's defeat. A general election differs from a primary in various ways. The electorate is broader, including Republicans and lots more independents. They're actually choosing the president, so they may pay closer attention and be more inclined to skepticism of Obama's airy rhetoric and messianic self-presentation. And the candidates are wholly unrestrained by concerns for party unity. McCain also is not a Clinton, with all the baggage that goes along with that name.

None of which is to say that Obama would not be a formidable foe, only that he will face a different set of challenges in a general election, and his success in the primaries is no guarantee of success in the general election. Here is a statistic for Obama to ponder: Roughly 50% of all major-party nominees go on to lose the general election.

You're Fine, but Not That Fine
From Honolulu, the Associated Press reports on a little political kerfuffle that illustrates a paradox about America:

Sen. Daniel Inouye has apologized for suggesting that Sen. Barack Obama's private high school in Hawaii was elitist.

Inouye said before his state's Feb. 19 Democratic caucuses that voters know Obama was born in Hawaii and graduated from one of its high schools, "but he went to Punahou, and that was not a school for the impoverished." . . .

The Democratic senator is backing Obama's presidential rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Inouye apologized in a letter to the president of the Punahou School, according to Jennifer Sabas, his chief of staff. . . .

"It was just a misstatement," Sabas said. "It was never the intent to disparage Punahou in any way. It is without a doubt one of the finest schools in our nation."

If it is "one of the finest schools in our nation," that's pretty elite, isn't it? But Inouye is apologizing for calling the school "elitist." There is at least a tension here--and yet it is a tension that captures something great about America: We aspire to value the best, but not to devalue that which falls short, to recognize the elite without becoming elitist. It's a logical contradiction, yet in a funny way it seems to work.

Three-Dollar Bill?
"IRS Investigates Obama's Denomination"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 26

President for Life?
Time magazine commits an amusing error in reporting on Ralph Nader's latest "bid for the White House":

Sticks and stones may break his bones but words will never hurt him. Ralph Nader has been called a lot of things, not the least of which is spoiler. If Al Gore had won even a few hundred of the 92,000 Florida votes Nader got as the Green Party candidate in 2000 Gore would be president today.

"Today" in this context means Feb. 26, 2008, the day the article appeared on Time's Web site. Apparently Time forgot that the president is elected for a four-year term. Al Gore might be president today if he had been elected in 2000, but he might also have lost re-election, or decided not to seek it.

iTorture
The liberal-left magazine Mother Jones features a "torture playlist," songs it claims have "been used in American military prisons and on bases to induce sleep deprivation, 'prolong capture shock,' disorient detainees during interrogations--and also drown out screams." (Warning: The top song on the list has an obscene title. That said, link here.) At No. 12 on the list is "Born in the USA," Bruce Springsteen's dismal portrait of post-Vietnam America.

All we can say is, we're shocked to the core that Springsteen is involved in torture of innocent terrorists. We will never buy another one of his albums again.

'With a Twist'
The Lawrentian, student newspaper of Lawrence University (Appleton, Wis.), features a story on a "gender studies" lecture by an odd couple:

Associate Professor of Physics Megan Pickett introduced [Helen] Boyd and her partner Betty Crow. . . . The two met in New York City and one month into dating, Betty, then presenting as a man, told Boyd she occasionally liked to dress as a woman. Boyd and Crow, then an off-Broadway actor, began to go out together in drag sometimes. . . .

One night, on their way back from dinner out, Helen looked at her partner, then dressed as a woman, and realized how natural it seemed. It was at that time, which they now call the "Mexican Restaurant Moment," that Betty's transition became a reality.

The couple was married in 2001 in the state of New York. They were married as a man and a woman, or as they put it, "A heterosexual couple with a twist," but their submission to the institution of marriage was still an issue.

Queer friends criticized them for partaking in a corrupt institution that they couldn't be part of.

The story doesn't make it quite clear if "Betty" is a man who dresses like a woman, a man who has been surgically altered to resemble a woman, or something else entirely. But apparently for the purposes of the marriage license, he is a man and Helen is a woman.

All of which belies the claim you often hear from proponents of same-sex marriage that their opponents are motivated by bigotry. If that were the case, the idea of a couple like Boyd and Crow being able to tie the knot legally would raise their hackles. But the only people who seem to be put out by it are their "queer friends."

Life Imitates the Onion

• "After a decade of aggressive expansion throughout North America and abroad, Starbucks suddenly and unexpectedly closed its 2,870 worldwide locations Monday to prepare for what company insiders are calling "Phase Two" of the company's long-range plan."--Onion, March 14, 2001

• "As caffeine junkies looking for their evening fix were locked out of Starbucks during the company's three-hour nationwide training session Tuesday, many didn't have to look farther than some competing cafe down the street for free or discounted cups of joe."--Associated Press, Feb. 26, 2008

Still, It's a Step Down From No. 10
"Blair Joins Impressive List of Leaders at No9"--headline, Scotsman, Feb. 23

It's Always in the Last Place You Look
"Scientists Find Map in People's Hair"--headline, Salt Lake Tribune, Feb. 26

She Should've Tried Books on Tape
"Road Rage Leads to Jail Time for Reading Woman"--headline, WCPO-TV Web site (Cincinnati), Feb. 26

The Guys Who Caught It, That's WHO!
"WHO Says Drug-Resistant TB Spreads Fast"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 26

Someone Set Up Us the Bomb
"A Child's Pony Car Education Essential"--headline, Detroit News, Feb. 27

Breaking News From 1933
"Writers Officially Okay New Deal"--headline, E! Online, Feb. 26

News You Can Use

• "Don't Stop Taking Anti-Depressants, Doctors Urge"--headline, Agence France-Presse, Feb. 27

• "Avoid Waiting-Room Boredom With Touch-Screen Tablets"--headline, USA Today, Feb. 26

• "Don't Sit on That Toilet!"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 26

Bottom Stories of the Day

• "Travolta Nearly Slips and Falls at Academy Awards"--headline, Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner, Feb. 26

• "Katherine Heigl Wants to Have a Baby"--headline, MSNBC.com, Feb. 25

• "Long-Shot Senate Candidate Seeks 'Indictment' Against Bush, Cheney"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 26

Babel on the Potomac
The Arlington, Va., public schools announce the "third annual Multicultural Parent Conference," a week from Saturday:

Interpretation will be provided in English, Arabic, Amharic, Mongolian, and Spanish for the opening session and workshops.

They would've included pig Latin, too, but they didn't want to offend the Uslimsmay.

(See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary on Opinion Journal. Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Dan O'Shea, Ethel Fenig, John Williamson, Jane Vawter, John Kelly, Jan Wasilewsky, Nathan James, Max Newman, Patrick Tuohey, Steve Prestegard, Joe Brosseau, James Trager, Lee Stokes, Greg Lindenberg, Clark Goodwin, Mark French, Shabtai Atlow, Kyle Kyllan, Gregory Brunt, Mordecai Bobrowsky, Steve Bunten and Jeffrey Shapiro. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)