Posted on 10/08/2008 3:16:45 PM PDT by publius1
David Brooks spoke frankly about the presidential and vice presidential candidates Monday afternoon, calling Sarah Palin a "fatal cancer to the Republican party" but describing John McCain and Barack Obama as "the two best candidates we've had in a long time."
In an interview with The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg at New York's Le Cirque restaurant to unveil that magazine's redesign, Brooks decried Palin's anti-intellectualism and compared her to President Bush in that regard:
[Sarah Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party. When I first started in journalism, I worked at the National Review for Bill Buckley. And Buckley famously said he'd rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. But he didn't think those were the only two options. He thought it was important to have people on the conservative side who celebrated ideas, who celebrated learning. And his whole life was based on that, and that was also true for a lot of the other conservatives in the Reagan era. Reagan had an immense faith in the power of ideas. But there has been a counter, more populist tradition, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely. And I'm afraid that Sarah Palin has those prejudices. I think President Bush has those prejudices.
Brooks praised Palin's natural political talent, but said she is "absolutely not" ready to be president or vice president. He explained, "The more I follow politicians, the more I think experience matters, the ability to have a template of things in your mind that you can refer to on the spot, because believe me, once in office there's no time to think or make decisions."
The New York Times columnist also said that the "great virtue" of Palin's counterpart, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, is that he is anything but a "yes man."
"[Biden] can't not say what he thinks," Brooks remarked. "There's no internal monitor, and for Barack Obama, that's tremendously important to have a vice president who will be that way. Our current president doesn't have anybody like that."
Brooks also spent time praising Obama's intellect and skills in social perception, telling two stories of his interactions with Obama that left him "dazzled":
Obama has the great intellect. I was interviewing Obama a couple years ago, and I'm getting nowhere with the interview, it's late in the night, he's on the phone, walking off the Senate floor, he's cranky. Out of the blue I say, 'Ever read a guy named Reinhold Niebuhr?' And he says, 'Yeah.' So i say, 'What did Niebuhr mean to you?' For the next 20 minutes, he gave me a perfect description of Reinhold Niebuhr's thought, which is a very subtle thought process based on the idea that you have to use power while it corrupts you. And I was dazzled, I felt the tingle up my knee as Chris Matthews would say.
And the other thing that does separate Obama from just a pure intellectual: he has tremendous powers of social perception. And this is why he's a politician, not an academic. A couple of years ago, I was writing columns attacking the Republican congress for spending too much money. And I throw in a few sentences attacking the Democrats to make myself feel better. And one morning I get an email from Obama saying, 'David, if you wanna attack us, fine, but you're only throwing in those sentences to make yourself feel better.' And it was a perfect description of what was going through my mind. And everybody who knows Obama all have these stories to tell about his capacity for social perception.
Brooks predicted an Obama victory by nine points, and said that although he found Obama to be "a very mediocre senator," he was is surrounded by what Brooks called "by far the most impressive people in the Democratic party."
"He's phenomenally good at surrounding himself with a team," Brooks said. "I disagree with them on most issues, but I am given a lot of comfort by the fact that the people he's chosen are exactly the people I think most of us would want to choose if we were in his shoes. So again, I have doubts about him just because he was such a mediocre senator, but his capacity to pick staff is impressive."
Brooks has the gall to quote Buckley's line about the 2,000 people in the phone book being preferable as a governing body to the faculty of Harvard et al -- then disagree with it -- then claim Buckley disagreed with it -- then go on to prove the truth of the aphorism on himself. What an ass!
Maybe this is all a misquote -- but, I think probably not.... Brooks & Peggy Noonan must be having high tea together, with some chemical chasers.
Brooks is definitely hallucinating.
David Brooks being his eastern elite catty metrosexual self.
Ah — here’s the quote by the man himself on YouTube — no way to dissociate himself from it — including the fatal cancer quote —
Where did you come up with this BS? An email from whom? I am not buying it.
Brooks, is at best, a Rockeffeller, limp-wristed, country club, psuedo-intellectual, dweeb who could only pass as a Republican in Lower Manhattan. Not anywhere else.
Palin has all Dems and most Pubs scared.
Let’s get her in there.
McCain/Palin Nov 4th 2008
The NYC beltway types indicated a year ago that they wanted to see a black guy win.....to heal our nation, or some such affirmative action pap.
Well, they will get their wish, and will see an even greater rift in our nation.
Because they..the media and the DNC have cheated and corrupted this election.
Paybacks will be a bitch.
Here’s what is so galling:
One may agree or disagree with whether Palin’s approach is “anti-intellectual.” (I disagree and believe she is challenging eggheaded Ivory-Tower naive liberals, as did Ike vs. Adlai Stevenson.)
But let’s keep some perspective and just write, “I don’t like her approach and think it’s wrong.”
Instead, Brooks goes off the proverbial deep end. Not only is Palin’s approach a “cancer,” but it’s also a “fatal” one.
Mr. Brooks, get it together.
I don’t understand the benefit of republishing obvious garbage on Free Republic.
CANCER, Heres your Cancer, Obama Cancer!
Ayers Obama Chavez!
Ayers has since lectured the Marxist dictator of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, on using public education as an instrument for advancing “revolution.” Meanwhile his stepson, Chesa Boudin, has gone to Caracas as an “adviser” to the anti-American Chavez.
Oh, by coincidence, Chavez and Castro are two of the dictators Obama said he’d like to give face time as president of the U.S.
It gets worse when one looks at Obama’s political organization.
Obama’s own Web site has held at least 15 favorable mentions of Che Guevara, according to a count by blogger Henry Gomez.
When an Obama precinct captain in Houston flew a Cuban flag bearing Guevara’s likeness, Obama said only it “disappointed” him and “does not reflect (his) views.” He never publicly ordered the flag down, nor rejected Guevara’s blood-soaked communism.
Another Obama supporter, acting in Obama’s name, secretly contacted Colombia’s Marxist FARC terror chief Raul Reyes to tell him that Obama would cut off U.S. military aid to Colombia to hinder its war against FARC, as well as deny Colombia free trade, a strategy FARC considers key to overturning Colombia’s democracy.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=294880428846293
Brooks if this is true, let the party die and we will rebuld a new, revitalized one, with Sarah at the helm.
You think he’s NOT gay????
A writing based on flawed premises = zero.
David Brooks spoke frankly about the presidential and vice presidential candidates Monday afternoon, calling Sarah Palin a "fatal cancer to the Republican party" but describing John McCain and Barack Obama as "the two best candidates we've had in a long time."
RINO/BARRACUDA 08’
I saw the video. I apologize. Brooks is one of these elitist country club Reps who hates conservatives. His arrogance is only exceeded by his ignorance.
brooks went to the dark side long ago.
this must be a resentment to her personal views regarding appropriate behavior and that mating habits do not establish special rights.
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