We've followed David Brooks' hackery for some time now, but this one has to take the cake. It seems that Senator Barack Obama's decision to opt out of the public campaign finance system has awakened this sleeping wanker.
God, Republicans are saps. They think that they’re running against some academic liberal who wouldn’t wear flag pins on his lapel, whose wife isn’t proud of America and who went to some liberationist church where the pastor damned his own country. They think they’re running against some naïve university-town dreamer, the second coming of Adlai Stevenson.
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.
Fast Eddie Obama? Oy. I wish I could tell you that Brooks' frothing, hit-piece got better, but, I can't.
I have to admit, I’m ambivalent watching all this. On the one hand, Obama did sell out the primary cause of his professional life, all for a tiny political advantage. If he’ll sell that out, what won’t he sell out? On the other hand, global affairs ain’t beanbag. If we’re going to have a president who is going to go toe to toe with the likes of Vladimir Putin, maybe it is better that he should have a ruthlessly opportunist Fast Eddie Obama lurking inside. Read on...
Ahh, the smell of feigned outrage. And nothing about McCain at all? Little David seems to be very angry -- and as Matthew Yglesias writes, you wouldn't like David when he's angry.
