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.
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"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.
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.
I'm hoping someone will write one about McCain's "fancy" wife.
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.
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
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.
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/
But I took the Michelle Obama reference to be more of a Virgin Mary thing than a lawn jockey thing.