Tuesday, March 15, 2011

But The Most Amazing Thing To Me Is...



From today's NYT (emphasis mine)

"The Ike Phase
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: March 14, 2011

...
Kennedy’s speech was an idealistic...

Eisenhower’s speech was a calm...

Kennedy celebrated courage...

Eisenhower celebrated prudence...

Kennedy asked the country to venture...

Eisenhower asked the country to maintain...

I suspect that most of us can, in different moods, sympathize with both the Kennedy and the Eisenhower speeches...

The Obama administration has tried to emulate both impulses.
...

The Arab masses have seized control of the international agenda with their marches and bravery. The Republicans on Capitol Hill and in Madison, Wis., have seized control of the domestic agenda with calls for spending cuts.

The Obama administration has reacted to both of these movements by striking a prudent, middling course.
...

Prudence is always a nice trait in a leader.
...

Politically, this is a style that seems to appeal to independents. Obama is not going to get sucked into a left-versus-right budget battle...

Yet this current cautious pose carries dangers, too
...

Prudence can sometimes look like weakness.
...

Prudence is important, but Americans do have an expectation that their president will be the one out front...

...I get paid for doing this.



If there is some secret contest being waged to see who can spend eight hundred words of prime New York Times op-ed page real estate constructing an essay so perfectly designed to say absolutely nothing whatsoever that even the semicolons negate each other, I am willing to declare Mr. Brooks this month's winner right now, hands-down.






5 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's saying something all right: "If we are to have a "Democratic" president then we prefer it be in name only, as now."

John Puma

Chicago Guy said...

I liked the part at the end when he said he didn't know what was going to happen.

Anonymous said...

for a slight revenge you can vote up or add snarky tags at Amazon for Brooks latest book.

Some of them are quite clever.

Kathy said...

17 reviews on Amazon, and only ONE bad one. Book has 4 1/2 stars. Very strange.

darkblack said...

'17 reviews on Amazon, and only ONE bad one. Book has 4 1/2 stars.'

Just like the HuffPo comments section (wherein a ruffled set of celebrity feathers is strictly nix-nix), the fix is in.

Amazon wants to move units, so they give the vox populi etch-a-sketch a shake to maintain the fiction that drivel merchants like Brooks have some sort of intellectual credibility.

;>)