I haven’t really read Ross Douthat, who has now been hired to write a regular column for the New York Times.

That being said, it is clear that he was not hired because they believed that he was the best writer and thinker out there; he was hired to fill a slot for conservatives, and he was the best person that they could find to fill that check off box.

I will note that the Times doesn’t do a great job with its regular columnists anyway, what with Maureen Dowd, who covers the issues of our day as if she is a middle schooler critiquing another shoes, and Tom Friedman, who seems to get his insights entirely in airports and taxicabs from people who talk like a person whose wife is worth (or was worth) about a billion dollars.