Glenn Beck: 'John McCain Would Have Been Worse than Barack Obama'

Katie Couric's got an interview with Glenn Beck (via Memeorandum).

I've been inspired by Beck all year, as readers might have noticed. I don't, however, consider Beck a "conservative." He's libertarian, and while I've yet to hear Beck speak much on foreign policy this year, I'd be quick to disagree with him if he started to sound like Ron Paul or the idiot "paleocons."

I mention this especially with reference to Peter Wehner's essay, "Glenn Beck: Harmful to the Conservative Movement":

I don’t pretend to be an expert on Beck. In the past I assumed he was a typical figure in the pundit and cable-media world. Only recently have I watched portions of his television program, as well as interviews with him, and heard parts of his radio program. And what I’ve seen should worry the conservative movement ....

I understand that a political movement is a mansion with many rooms; the people who occupy them are involved in intellectual and policy work, in politics, and in polemics. Different people take on different roles. And certainly some of the things Beck has done on his program are fine and appropriate. But the role Glenn Beck is playing is harmful in its totality. My hunch is that he is a comet blazing across the media sky right now—and will soon flame out. Whether he does or not, he isn’t the face or disposition that should represent modern-day conservatism. At a time when we should aim for intellectual depth, for tough-minded and reasoned arguments, for good cheer and calm purpose, rather than erratic behavior, he is not the kind of figure conservatives should embrace or cheer on.

I omitted some of the passages at the center of Wehner's post, so check that for more substance.

Outside of the hot neocons (VDH, the Kagans, Charles Krauthammer), Peter Wehner's probably my favorite online commentator. This particular essay is bothersome, however. He's coming off like David Frum here, and that's about as bad a put-down one can get these days. Folks need to talk Glenn Beck for what he is: an entertainer and a lightning rod for popular discontent, and he's not hurting conservative by mobilizing the small-government lumpen-electorate (they'll turn out for the GOP). Not only that, right now it's all about the tea parties, the town halls, and resisting the socialist abomination that is the Barack Obama White House. Who's been doing a more thorough job in taking on the ACORN-Democratic-Obama complex? I mean, c'mon give it up for Fox News, where Beck is at the forefront of the conservative/libertarian resistance. Yeah, he's a little far-fetched sometimes, but hardly as bad as the Van Jones-ACORN-NEA edifice that's just now tumbling under its own contradictions. Karl Marx, six-feet under at Highgate, has to be rolling over at that one.

(P.S.: As bad as John McCain was for many conservatives during the campaign, I can guarantee you he wouldn't have been near as bad as Obama - and remember, we'd have Sarah Palin in the vice-president's mansion right now!)

(P.S.S.: Edited.)