William Kristol wrote an article in 1995 suggesting that a Powell candidacy offered opportunities for conservatives. Some other articles in the Standard took that view as well. In 2000, Kristol and some other Standard-ites backed McCain in the primaries. I disagreed with the Powell-boosting and the McCain-boosting at the time, although in retrospect I think a McCain presidency might have worked out better for conservatives than the Bush presidency did. Anyway, I don’t recall that the Standard predicted electoral ruin in 2000. Kristol and company thought McCain would be a stronger candidate than Bush. That was not a crazy thought. You may recall that the 2000 election ended up being rather close at the presidential level, and Republicans lost four Senate seats.