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A Moderate Manifesto (David Brooks: "Barack Obama is not who we thought he was")
New York Times ^ | March 2, 2009 | DAVID BROOKS

Posted on 03/03/2009 5:02:37 AM PST by publius1

You wouldn’t know it some days, but there are moderates in this country — moderate conservatives, moderate liberals, just plain moderates. We sympathize with a lot of the things that President Obama is trying to do. We like his investments in education and energy innovation. We support health care reform that expands coverage while reducing costs.

But the Obama budget is more than just the sum of its parts. There is, entailed in it, a promiscuous unwillingness to set priorities and accept trade-offs. There is evidence of a party swept up in its own revolutionary fervor — caught up in the self-flattering belief that history has called upon it to solve all problems at once.

So programs are piled on top of each other and we wind up with a gargantuan $3.6 trillion budget. We end up with deficits that, when considered realistically, are $1 trillion a year and stretch as far as the eye can see. We end up with an agenda that is unexceptional in its parts but that, when taken as a whole, represents a social-engineering experiment that is entirely new.

U.S. has never been a society riven by class resentment. Yet the Obama budget is predicated on a class divide. The president issued a read-my-lips pledge that no new burdens will fall on 95 percent of the American people. All the costs will be borne by the rich and all benefits redistributed downward....

The U.S. has traditionally had a relatively limited central government. But federal spending as a share of G.D.P. is zooming from its modern norm of 20 percent to an unacknowledged level somewhere far beyond.

Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Front Page News; Government; Miscellaneous; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bho2009; bho44; charlesfreeman; cravensquish; davidbrooks; democrat; democrats; economy; impeachobama; obama; rinopurge; rinos; squish; vichyrepublicans
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To: publius1
I'm sorry to get personal, but after listening to his comments and his defensiveness about being a moderate (too scared to be a liberal, doesn't want his pals to think he's conservative), I gotta say, Brooks is the model for the wimpy modern male. He always looks like he's going to start that nervous laughter that comes from those who really, really want to be liked.

Grow a pair and stop with the "Obama isn't who he said he was, even though he's so wonderfully inspiring and has a marvelous character" crap, already. If you really think he's a destructive force, freakin have the stones to say "The conservatives were right" and don't be so damned mealymouthed.

121 posted on 03/03/2009 10:40:56 AM PST by Darkwolf377
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To: ETL

I mean he’s damaged any reputation he had with anyone, ever.


122 posted on 03/03/2009 10:49:25 AM PST by syriacus ( STOP FISCAL STORMING!!! Cap green emissions from the Treasury.)
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To: publius1

Just a jump to the left!


123 posted on 03/03/2009 1:31:32 PM PST by Mike Darancette (We have nothing to fear but Obama himself.)
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To: publius1
People get fooled, I suppose. Even people that you would think are paying attention.

Let's just introduce an admonition into the general wisdom that states that any 1st term Senator that decides he is important enough to now run for President is someone that we should be very wary of.

John Edwards, Barack Obama, or anyone who barely elected to one office suddenly starts running for the next ... beware ... their ego, their own sense of self importance and entitlement makes them dangerous and not trustworthy.

How hard is it to know that?

124 posted on 03/03/2009 1:43:50 PM PST by spodefly (This is my tag line. There are many like it, but this one is mine.)
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To: publius1
Barack Obama is not who we thought he was reported him to be.

-PJ

125 posted on 03/03/2009 1:47:08 PM PST by Political Junkie Too (You can never overestimate the Democrats' ability to overplay their hand.)
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To: publius1

There are none so blind as those who will not see.


126 posted on 03/03/2009 2:04:50 PM PST by kalee (01/20/13 The end of an error.... Obama even worse than Carter.)
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To: publius1
Oh, please. I don't think Mr. Brooks could possibly be more transparent on the issue. He did everything he could to get Obama elected in order to curry favor with the other elitists, and now he's suddenly finding himself a conservative again just in time to take up the banner of token conservatism at that bastion of objectivity, the NY Times. What a coincidence.

It was no mistake, not a case of blindness, of misconstrual of motives. It was a sellout. Brooks, Peggy Noonan, Christopher Buckley, sellouts. "Approved" conservatives. Lapdogs. This sort of garbage is nothing more than a tactical move to get back on the journalistic gravy train, and it will work nicely. But it isn't fooling anyone.

127 posted on 03/03/2009 2:06:09 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: Wyatt's Torch

“He’s not who I thought he was either. I thought he was a radical Marxist prior to the election. turns out he’s far worse...”

I’m in this camp!


128 posted on 03/03/2009 5:56:02 PM PST by GOPRaleigh (Obama's Wal-Street: Falling Prices)
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To: abb

[If David Brooks didn’t know what Obama stood for all his political life, then he (Brooks) is too stupid to have a regular column in a major publication.]

Fortunately, the NYT is well on it’s way to being a minor publication.


129 posted on 03/03/2009 6:00:18 PM PST by FastCoyote (I am intolerant of the intolerable.)
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To: publius1

The term "useful idiot" comes to mind.

130 posted on 03/03/2009 6:01:04 PM PST by HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity
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To: publius1

So Ding Dong has turned out to be a pig in a poke, eh David? Not the brightest bulb in the lamp, are ya?


131 posted on 03/03/2009 6:08:13 PM PST by prairiebreeze (These are the times that try men's souls.)
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To: publius1

Anyone who thought Hussein was a moderate had their head up their a$$.


132 posted on 03/03/2009 6:55:15 PM PST by KansasGirl
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To: publius1
You wouldn’t know it some days, but there are moderates in this country — moderate conservatives, moderate liberals, just plain moderates. We sympathize with a lot of the things that President Obama is trying to do. We like his investments in education and energy innovation. We support health care reform that expands coverage while reducing costs.

Who ever wrote this lost me on this paragraph. If he is trashing Obama he is going about it the wrong way. Obviously a liberal who wants to see his agendas passed but not all of Bozo's. Anyone who wants the government to meddle in our lives, even a little(and there is no such thing as a little meddling), is a socialist and no friend of mine. Education, energy inovation, health reform and he admires these programs? Enough said.

133 posted on 03/03/2009 6:58:31 PM PST by calex59
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To: publius1

Brooks should have spent more time READING what Obama said instead of LISTENING to what he said.


134 posted on 03/03/2009 7:29:06 PM PST by rightinthemiddle (Without the Mainstream Media, the Left is Nothing.)
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To: andy58-in-nh
A "moderate" is one who makes of fetish of even-handedness in order to evade the responsibility of judgment.

Very good!

135 posted on 03/03/2009 7:32:14 PM PST by stayathomemom (Cat herder and empty nester)
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To: publius1; bereanway
Bereanway has a post with which Brooks may easily be indicted by his own conversation with Bambi.

"You have to use power while it corrupts you" indeed.

Bambi was corrupt long before he got near power, apparently.

Berean, consider yourself *highly* commended.

Cheers!

136 posted on 03/03/2009 7:45:43 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: publius1

maybe you are only ‘moderately’ pregnant by this new guy you are dating Mr. Brooks.


137 posted on 03/03/2009 8:39:57 PM PST by bpjam (Tell your Rep/Senator to Google: Marjorie Mezvinsky. Yes, it IS a threat.)
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To: publius1

“Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was.”

And true conservatives who called Obama a socialist and neo-Marxist are muttering bitterly ...

WE TOLD YOU SO!


138 posted on 03/03/2009 9:37:47 PM PST by WOSG (tagline is now unemployed due to Obama economy)
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To: indylindy

ROFL.

Here’s another one:

Dear Mr Brooks,

SUCKER.

- A Conservative Who Had Obama’s Number From Day One

Let me add for the other stupid moderates:

Dear Investor-class-upper-middle-class-Obama voter,

How’s that vote for the mocha Marxist working out for your pocketbook?


139 posted on 03/03/2009 9:41:05 PM PST by WOSG (tagline is now unemployed due to Obama economy)
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To: lakertaker

“I remember Newt insisting to Hannity that Obama will govern from the center. Hannity, to his credit, wasn’t buying it. Now I see Newt has changed his tone “

A LOT of wishful thinking from the inside-the-beltway folks after the election and before Jan 20th.


140 posted on 03/03/2009 9:44:10 PM PST by WOSG (tagline is now unemployed due to Obama economy)
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