Ben Wattenberg R.I.P.

National Review Online ^ | 6/29/2015 | Yuval Levin

[Forgotten Amendments]

Ben Wattenberg — the gloriously unclassifiable public intellectual, journalist, television host, amateur demographer, and loving student of America — passed away yesterday at the age of 81.

Among Wattenberg’s many gifts to his country, his unwavering refusal to abide any simple narrative of American decline always struck me as the greatest.

[Forgotten Amendments]

Forgive me if someone else posted this sad news. I haven't found it.

This was a brilliant man. He (and Walter Williams) shaped my ideas back in the '80s. For me, his greatest work was debunking junk science and the always popular, but never correct doomsayers.

I gather that he called himself a neocon. But, he's old school. Nothing like the power mad little creeps who wear that title today. He was a great thinker and seemed like a genuinely good fellow. He left the world a better place.

[gaijin]

My god I love that guy!!!

This a terrible.

He was fantastic.

I think I heard him just two nights ago.

He was a close personal friend of Clint Eastwood.

I talked to him two times, it was fantastic.

[Ann Archy]

I LOVED Ben Wattenburg!!!

[skinkinthegrass]

*

[Paladin2]

81 is too young. Roberts’ logic may have gone him in.

[glennaro]

RIP Ben Wattenberg. The world is even more intellectually barren from the loss of your wisdom.

[M Kehoe]

R.I.P.

5.56mm

[LRoggy]

RIP to a fellow Hobart Statesman . . . class of ‘55

[Hugin]

I used to listen to him a lot back in the day. I remember he was a real conservationist who used to be on the board of the Sierra Club. He resigned in the 70s because they were taken over by rich leftie lawyers who just wanted to use it to sue people. Also after the Northridge quake he came up with the idea of using old railroad flatcars to replace damaged freeway bridges. They made an X out of two, and one across the top. It worked and allowed them to get them up in a few days until they could build new ones.

[jocon307]

RIP Ben Wattenberg, thanks for posting this, he was great.

[HokieMom]

I loved his columns in the Washington Times. A true loss.

[Osage Orange]

BTTT

[pluvmantelo]

Terrible news. A great loss.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[uglybiker]

You’re thinking of Bill Wattenburg. He’s still around.

[Hugin]

You’re right. Never mind...

[Valin]

Really! Very Cool.

Learn Something New Everyday.

[Valin]

Never Mind.

[uglybiker]

He's still broadcasting btw.

[donaldo]

I’ll second that. Wattenberg was also an early influence on me. He was beyond categorization and pigeonholing and didn’t have any puerile notions of doctrinal purity like so many of the in-lock-step liberals so prevalent today.