Saturday, November 14, 2009

David Brooks and the Obama man-crush

David Brooks' Friday column was a paean to Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) -- a dream vehicle for the "Anybody But Palin" Coalition? -- but there was something obtrusive, as Ryan Cole notes at The American Spectator:
[A]s is the routine with everything Brooks' pen produces these days, an otherwise coherent piece is disrupted by the author's gratuitous displays of affection towards President Barack Obama.
After ticking off all of the qualities that might make Thune presidential material and the issues that may lead the country towards a GOP revival . . . Brooks (perhaps fearing the White House might construe this as some sort of criticism) quickly reminds readers that Obama is "the most talented political figure of the age." Really? After a year in the Oval Office, what tangible evidence is there to support this theory? Cash for Clunkers? . . .
Read the whole thing. I do not deny that Obama has political talent, most especially the oratorical power of his sonorous baritone. But Rush Limbaugh also has a great baritone voice. It takes more than political talent to be a good president, and political talent that is employed to advance bad policies is a net negative.

The reason that Obama is so effusively praised is the same reason he's a bad president: He is a liberal. It is Brooks' desire to be considered "thoughtful" by his liberal peers that causes him to engage in this ridiculous genuflections before their temple-cult idol, Obama.

Brooks is not a conservative. Being a conservative begins with the fundamental assumption that liberals are always wrong, about everything. If liberals generally admire someone, you may be sure that the object of their admiration is a deeply flawed personality (e.g., Bill Clinton). The frenzied enthusiasm for Obama (who is to liberals what Joe Jonas is to 13-year-old girls) exceeds even the worst excesses of Clintonmania, which is a sure sign that Obama will be a spectacularly bad president.

Please read "How to Think About Liberalism (If You Must)."

5 comments:

  1. "the fundamental assumption that liberals are always wrong," is an excellent rule to live by.

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  2. Brooks is not a conservative. Being a conservative begins with the fundamental assumption that liberals are always wrong, about everything.

    Now that is a funny line. True, but more from a proven track record. Occasionally liberals are right on some things, but that is mostly because they have like a blind pig adopted a conservative acorn (as opposed to the ACORN they mostly like).

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  3. Being a conservative begins with the fundamental assumption that liberals are always wrong, about everything.

    Stacy, that's not being a conservative, that's being an idiot.

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  4. Apparently Obama is bowing again (this time to the Japanese emperor (I guess the one who is related to the one who came out of the hills to sign the peace treaty after WWII--which happened in Obama bizzaro history only). Althouse had this youtube clip on proper bowing protocol for da One.

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  5. The thought of BHO being the best politician of our age is falsified by the existence of one William Jefferson Blythe Clinton. Despite my loathing of this man, he was nonetheless far more effective at coalition building. You might disagree everything the slickster had to say, but he had a certain roguish likeability which is completely lacking in BHO.

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