David Brooks Admits He Is An 'Obama Sap'

Alternative headline: David Brooks has lost that lovin’ feelin’ for Obama.

I’m a sap, a specific kind of sap. I’m an Obama Sap.

When the president said the unemployed couldn’t wait 14 more months for help and we had to do something right away, I believed him. When administration officials called around saying that the possibility of a double-dip recession was horrifyingly real and that it would be irresponsible not to come up with a package that could pass right away, I believed them.

I liked Obama’s payroll tax cut ideas and urged Republicans to play along. But of course I’m a sap. When the president unveiled the second half of his stimulus it became clear that this package has nothing to do with helping people right away or averting a double dip. This is a campaign marker, not a jobs bill.

It recycles ideas that couldn’t get passed even when Democrats controlled Congress. In his remarks Monday the president didn’t try to win Republicans to even some parts of his measures. He repeated the populist cries that fire up liberals but are designed to enrage moderates and conservatives.

Read the whole thing. It was clear years ago that Brooks was a sap for placing so much faith in Obama due to the perfect crease in his pants. Punditry doesn’t get more shallow or less serious than that.

As for Obama, there was much speculation that the mid-term shellacking would cause him to moderate and move to the middle to position himself for re-election. I never saw things that way; there is no evidence that either the president or his close advisers have any moderate tendencies or instincts at all. His phony jobs plans tell us that Obama intends run for re-election as a hard left liberal of the tax and spend species. He is literally promising tax increases so he can spend more money. He should ask Walter Mondale how that tends to work out.