Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The Obama-Brooks Bromance and, er, Brokeback Mountain?

Nahh – I wouldn’t go so far as to say that David Brooks gave Barack Obama a scolding in today’s op-ed in response to Gabriel Sherman’s post in The New Republic titled The Courtship in which Sherman observed:


These days, the center-right Brooks frequently seems more sympathetic toward Obama than the liberal Paul Krugman. He has written columns praising Obama’s Afghanistan policy, education proposals, and economic team. Even on broad areas of disagreement--deficit spending, the sprawling stimulus bill, health care reform--Brooks tends to treat Obama and his administration with respect. “My overall view,” Brooks told me, “is ninety-five percent of the decisions they make are good and intelligent. Whether I agree with them specifically, I think they’re very serious and very good at what they do.” It is an odd situation to say the least: David Brooks, prominent conservative, has become the most visible journalistic ally of arguably the most liberal president of his lifetime.

On the other hand, the first comment following Sherman’s post might well have pushed Brooks to put a little distance between himself and Obama. Commenter Gw concludes his little playlet with this scene:


Brooks: Well, of course, I know little of that. But then my most cherished dream has always been to be thought of, first and foremost, as a writer the caliber of which we encounter only at The New Republic.


Obama [leaning forward and patting Brooks gently on the knee]:



There, there, David...that, of course, is understood.



[Then after a long pause]: David, do these intimate chats we have remind you of the movie....



Brooks [giddy with excitment]: ......Brokeback Mountain? Oh, yes, Mr President, oh yes!!



Obama [with a grandiloquent wink]:



Okay, pardner, let's go saddle up!!

But, hey, let’s give Brooks a little credit. Despite Sherman’s long list of favorable columns, today is not the first time Brooks has criticized Obama. Check out this quote from his June 20, 2008 column.


But as recent weeks have made clear, Barack Obama is the most split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there is Dr. Barack, the high-minded, Niebuhr-quoting speechifier who spent this past winter thrilling the Scarlett Johansson set and feeling the fierce urgency of now. But then on the other side, there’s Fast Eddie Obama, the promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who’d throw you under the truck for votes.

Okay. In today’s column, Brooks writes about The Obama Slide:


Two tides swept over American politics last winter. The first was the Obama tide. Barack Obama came into office with an impressive 70 percent approval rating. The second was the independent tide. Over the first months of this year, the number of people who called themselves either Democrats or Republicans declined, while the number who called themselves independents surged ahead.

Obama’s challenge was to push his agenda through a Democratic-controlled government while retaining the affection of the 39 percent of Americans in the middle.


The administration hasn’t been able to pull it off. From the stimulus to health care, it has joined itself at the hip to the liberal leadership in Congress. The White House has failed to veto measures, like the pork-laden omnibus spending bill, that would have demonstrated independence and fiscal restraint. By force of circumstances and by design, the president has promoted one policy after another that increases spending and centralizes power in Washington.


The result is the Obama slide, the most important feature of the current moment. The number of Americans who trust President Obama to make the right decisions has fallen by roughly 17 percentage points. Obama’s job approval is down to about 50 percent. All presidents fall from their honeymoon highs, but in the history of polling, no newly elected American president has fallen this far this fast.

Anxiety is now pervasive. Trust in government rose when Obama took office. It has fallen back to historic lows. Fifty-nine percent of Americans now think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

You can read the rest of Brooks’ lament here.




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