This is John Hawkins from Right Wing News. On Thursday of this week, I am going to be putting up an article entitled, “Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select Their Favorite Columnists”. This is a once a year poll and you can sort of think of it as the “People’s Choice Awards” for conservative columnists.
Here was my list. And lest the usual suspects think I’m angling for votes here, time is up and it’s an invite-only vote anyhow. I actually forgot to put two of these on my ballot, but no matter, my choices tend to fair poorly anyhow, except for Coulter, Steyn and Goldberg. I do, however, expect Mike Adams to do well.
1. Ann Coulter
2. John Derbyshire
3. Pat Buchanan
4. Mark Steyn
5. Jonah Goldberg
6. Mike Adams
7. Joseph Farah
8. Thomas Sowell
9. Jay Nordlinger
10. Victor Davis Hanson
11. Ilana Mercer
This doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with the columnist, only that I like something about their perspective or writing style. For example, I think Hanson regularly draws incorrect conclusions from history, but I like how he at least attempts to seek a historical perspective, unlike almost every other political pundit except Buchanan. I think people would be shocked if they truly grasped the vast difference in historical knowledge between a Hanson or Buchanan and the Malkin/Shapiro sort.
And while I’m not a fan of Farah’s occasional tendency towards histrionics, his consistency is impressive considering that he writes a column every day. If I had to do that, I can’t even imagine how bizarre and meandering my column would become.