Is David Brooks Comparing Michelle Obama to a Lawn Jockey?

In his column today in The New York Times, David Brooks slimes Barack Obama as well as his wife Michelle. He has distinguished himself as the reactionary intelligentsia's Ann Coulter, and he tipped the Right's hand in its preference for Hillary Clinton this November. Judge for yourself as Brooks tries (but fails miserably) to hack out his own Oscar Wilde-type witticisms:

Brooks refers to Obama in his short piece as the "Hope Pope"; "The Chosen One"; "His Hopeness"; "The Presence Himself"; "The Changemaker"; and the "High Deacon of Unity." He also uses "His" to refer to Obama (like the Biblical usage), which I would think might piss off some of his evangelical Christian readers.

But the most offensive ad hominem attack in the piece is not aimed at Barack Obama but at his wife Michelle. For some reason Brooks thinks it's funny to joke that supporters of Obama are "spending hours making folk crafts featuring Michelle Obama's face." I really don't get this reference. Is Brooks implying that "folk" crafts using Michelle Obama's face as a model have something to do with her race? Is Brooks here comparing the African-American wife of a presidential candidate to a lawn jockey?

And then Brooks drops all pretext of wit or fact and asserts that Obama's supporters "know that most of his hope-mongering is vaporous. They know that he knows it's vaporous." But this raises the question: How on Earth does Brooks "know" that Obama "knows" that his words are "vaporous?" I guess he's clairvoyant.

My guess is that Brooks is feeling the heat of competition from William Kristol now that he has joined the Times and Brooks wants to upstage the venerable war monger with his own rapier (if not racist) pen.

Comments

[Lemeritus]

Aw, come on! Tell me you didn't read this and laugh:

"His Hopeness tells rallies that we are the change we have been waiting for, but if we are the change we have been waiting for then why have we been waiting since we"ve been here all along?"

If you didn't laugh, you're not a real Democrat and there's no hope you'll survive November.

[ajax2]

David Brooks is a disgusting right wing hack who seems to have unlimited media access. There doesn't appear to be one iota of fact in his smear attack on Obama, Michelle, or their supporters.
However, Mr. Brooks is an early indicator of what future right wing attacks might look like. In the Senate race in Tennessee Mr. Brooks was out early with his clever attacks on Harold Ford based on race.

[shangti]

Behold I present to the first Judas Iscariot (and probably not the last) of Saint Obama grand coalition of the Democrats and Republicans. When he was supporting Obama, his name was used in reverence, but now that he speak against the Great Savior, we Obamaniacs wants his head on a silver platter.

[tbone99]

you're reaching here.Lawn jockey came to YOUR mind, so who's the racist?

[indie17]

It was a horrible piece.

I'm hoping someone will write one about McCain's "fancy" wife.

[Kreskytim]

Wow ,how long have you been waiting to trot out the term "lawn jockey"? It's not a stretch it's a fabrication.
Look, Obama people were quoting Brooks only weeks ago for his praise of Barak. Did you really think the right was going to embrace him? That's just more Obama supporter naivete.
I find the most amusing part is that you have managed to throw in a dig at Clinton in the middle of this mess of a post. Of course Brooks column is all about getting HRC the nod? What a joke.

[bookerone]

You can call David Brooks a lot of things be he is hardly racist. To bad this crowd isn't just as offended by the sexist language of the Obama gang.

[TommyMcCarthy]

Looks like Joe got a little excited here. Comparing David Brooks to Ann Coulter is just preposterous.

As conservative journalists go Brooks is pretty mellow. He gets kind of loopy sometimes, and the column that so insensed Mr. Palermo is a case in point.

Brooks was apparrently trying to be funny, but it fell quite flat.

"Is Brooks comparing...(Ms. Obama..to a lawn jockey?)!!....."Rapier if not racist pen"..!!!

Ye Gods!....Let's imagine Sen. Obama wins the nomination, defeats McCain and becomes President.... Will every critique of his policies, every statement in disagreement with his proposals, be gone over with a fine toothed comb searching for some non-existant subterranean racism?

This is the mirror image of what the O'Rielly's and the Limbaughs of the world do.
Categorize everyone not in lockstep with YOUR camp as being on the far fringe of the other, twist the meanings of words, and attribute motives that do not exist in order to then lambaste those who disagree with you.

Hey folks, the wall came down in '88 and this is America remember?...........................................tm

[Liberal2]

Kristol and Brooks--two rethug lawn ornaments themselves.

[altohone]

Brooks is simply repeating the Hillary camp's strategy to make Obama supporters look ready to fly off to Jonestown.

Painting us as wackos is standard practice to influence fence sitters.

Whatever you do, DON'T DRINK THE KOOL-AID!
A progressive leader for America is a pipe-dream, and anybody daring to hope is foolish.

Ignore Obama's judgement to oppose the Bush agenda, and ignore Hillary's capitulation.

None of that matters.

[DemandTruth]

Actually, I kinda like "His Hopeness" and "The Changemaker". I wonder if we could coopt this and put it on a t-shirt or something? Vote Obama. The Changemaker! It's got the same ring as "The Gubernator" doncha think?

[zebra3]

I don't think there was a particular "slur" against Michelle in the Brooks column. He's just trying to make his (dumb and wrong) point that Obama supporters are "kumbaya campers" who will be leaving summer camp in a couple of weeks. I don't know what to make of the fact that a number of journalists fail to see the importance of inspiration to effective leadership, but, then again, just as many journalists do get it. What I honestly think it boils down to is that many journalists are, themselves, "high" on Obama in spite of themselves, and they themselves notice that periodically, when he hasn't given a victory speech in a little while, they feel depressed and down. (And this is whether they are male or female.)

[divabunny]

wow joe... did the bho campaign come out with another flyer on "race"? you are really reaching with this one?

i would imagine that mr brooks was following the same assertion that other have by comparing the obamabots to the hari krishnas... that is what he meant by the folk craft comment.
they sit around and "craft" rather than educate themselves on the truth about their "leader."
http://rezkowatch.blogspot.com/

[JoeyP]

I suspect that racism is percolating just beneath the surface of many commentators on the Right including Brooks and it seeps through even when they try to keep from doing so. I would ask the question: why isn't anyone making "folk crafts" of Bill Clinton's face? Or "folk crafts" of John McCain's Stepford wife? Why are people in Brooks' mind making "folk crafts" of Michelle Obama's face? Sounds like the logo for Sambo's restaurant or the cute little guy on the side of the old Pullman Palace Car Company --??? Oh, of course, Brooks and Glen Beck and Tucker and Kristol and Limbaugh and these guys are not ever, ever "racist!"

[Lon]

It was not a good column from Brooks. Basically it was a content lite way of accusing Obama of running a campaign that is content lite.

But I took the Michelle Obama reference to be more of a Virgin Mary thing than a lawn jockey thing.