On NPR, 'Conservative' David Brooks Trashes Cain the 'TV Show' and Romney the Cold Fish
On Friday night's All Things Considered, the Week in Politics segment could have been titled "Another Horrible Week for Republicans." Helping out enthusiastically was New York Times columnist David Brooks, who is billed as the conservative half of the political analyst team with ultraliberal Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. But the two end up agreeing so much you can't tell which one is the liberal.
When anchor Robert Siegel asked if this week marked the "beginning of the end of the Cain phenomenon," Brooks sneered that Cain was a "TV show that lasted a little while," and Dionne naturally agreed. Then Brooks turned to Romney and insisted he drops the emotional temperature of the room to chilling lows -- and of course, Dionne agreed.
The segment began with both pundits agreeing that the economy is in bad shape, and will remain that way for quite some time. But there was no suggestion that it makes Barack Obama's re-election difficult. Because apparently, the Republicans are such a bad joke. Here's the Cain portion:
ROBERT SIEGEL, anchor: Herman Cain, who's been asked about sexual harassment complaints from the '90s and the cash payments that the National Restaurant Association made to two women who complained. David, you first. Is this the beginning of the end of the Cain phenomenon?
BROOKS: There was no beginning. He was a TV show that lasted for a little while. Listen, let me stand up for elitist insiders. This is a job for professionals. Running for office is a job for professionals. Governing is a job for professionals. What Herman Cain did this week - let's leave aside the harassment - his handling of this was completely unprofessional. Every amateur candidate knows how to do a better job than this. You find out the information. You lay it out clearly. And he couldn't do the ABCs of running for office, so as far as I can tell, he is what he has been, an entertaining, very likable TV show who will - when it actually comes time to cast votes, people are going to go with the only one candidate who seems plausible and that's...
SIEGEL: For the time being, they're neck and neck in the polls.
BROOKS: That's because we're in the silly season. Why not in the early part of the season go for the guy who makes you feel good? It's free and it's easy.
SIEGEL: E.J. Dionne?
DIONNE: I think he may end up as an entertaining television show when this is all over.
A listener might expect at least a polite tennis match with two guys on opposing sides of the court. But when you hire David Brooks, it looks more like playing doubles with no one on the other side of the net.
One might think that since Mitt Romney has been presented as the experienced Squish in this GOP campaign, that Brooks would be enthusiastic for him -- at least a fraction as enthusiastic as his embarrassing fawning over Barack Obama four years ago. But no, Brooks thinks Romney is a cold fish, perhaps a frozen fish stick:
SIEGEL: David Brooks, does this all show there's a great weakness in Mitt Romney, that there's somebody in that number two spot giving him a good race all the time?
BROOKS: There's nobody in the number two spot, there are certainly weakness. I'm struck by the fact that a lot of people just don't like him. I remember when he ran for office last time and four years ago, all the other Republican candidates really got along well with each other. But when Mitt Romney would walk in one of those pre-debate green rooms, the emotional temperature would just drop. (LAUGHTER)
And so, there's something about him. Maybe he's too perfect, too good looking, whatever it is. And then the fact that he's from Massachusetts, a lot of people think he's too moderate. There is some resistance to him in the party. But at the end of the day, my own view is - and this week exemplifies it - no alternative.
SIEGEL: His nomination, you figure is just about inevitable.
BROOKS: Well, I hate to do that because I got this...
SIEGEL: I know. I just wanted to push you a little bit. (LAUGHTER)
BROOKS: ...wrong before, but it looks that way right now.
DIONNE: I agree with David on the emotional temperature and the fact the party can't embrace him. That's why I still can't see it as inevitable yet.
This is just the kind of "debate" that NPR listeners deeply adore. Everyone agrees with the liberal sensibility. It makes you laugh at the idea that NPR sells itself during pledge drives as thought-provoking and mind-enriching when liberal minds aren't challenged at all by any discouraging words about how liberalism works -- or fails.
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Comments
We know why NPR invites this guy on.
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 8:14am.
I'm sure that if David Brooks were asked who would be a good, conservative, choice for President in 2012, he would ponder for a few seconds, and then respond: 'Barack Obama'.
Or...
Submitted by rockyracoon on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 2:11pm.
That whatshisname Huntsman guy.
Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
What a joke.
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 8:31am.
Bringing out "conservative" David Brooks to trash a Republican is akin to having "devout Catholic" Nancy Pelosi criticizing the Church.
What you should ALWAYS remember about David Brooks
Submitted by L.N. Smithee on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 9:12am.
"Listen, let me stand up for elitist insiders. This is a job for professionals. Running for office is a job for professionals. Governing is a job for professionals."
This is the same man who fell in love -- almost literally -- with Barack Obama within minutes of meeting him for the first time.
From The New Republic, August 31, 2009:
"Brooks, a conservative writer who joined the Times in 2003 from The Weekly Standard, had never met Obama before. But, as they chewed over the finer points of Edmund Burke, it didn’t take long for the two men to click. “I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging,” Brooks recently told me, “but usually when I talk to senators, while they may know a policy area better than me, they generally don’t know political philosophy better than me. I got the sense he knew both better than me.” That first encounter is still vivid in Brooks’s mind. “I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant,” Brooks says, “and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president."
Two days after the book "The Audacity of Hope" was released, Brooks wrote an op-ed in the New York Times titled "Run, Barack, Run." If you're a bulimic, you may want to read this after eating -- it's easier than shoving a finger down your throat. Just about everything he thought about Obama was completely wrong. A sample: "[A]nyone who’s observed him closely can see that Obama is a new kind of politician. As Klein once observed, he’s that rarest of creatures: a megahyped phenomenon that lives up to the hype."
"Well, I've got nothing against the press...they wouldn't print it if it wasn't true..." -- Joe Jackson, "Sunday Papers"
I could be wrong, but
Submitted by 26CX on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 9:28am.
doesn't this description "I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant..." sound like a line from The Picture of Dorian Gray?
NPR
Submitted by MidAmerica on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 9:09am.
NPR..... No Place for Republicans is a safe haven for all the comfortably Liberal to go to where they can feel safe from opinions that will challenge their worldview. The hosts and guests talk in slow confident rhythms about their opinions and with measured sophisticated condescension towards alternative opinions. They know they are outnumbered by the barbarians outside their walls but inside the world is as it should be.
Brooks: A Conservative only the New York Times could love ...
Submitted by ombdz on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 9:14am.
... and, as mentioned above, about as meaningful as the 'devout Catholic' Pelosi - especially after we learned this week that God just may not be a Democrat ... http://bit.ly/qVdDUt
My opinion
Submitted by Texndoc on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 9:15am.
Brooks and Dionne are terrified of a rock hard Conservative named Perry. If Cain is over and squishy lib RINO Romney is a shoo-in then David Brooks should be dancing.
sorry to disagree
Submitted by Free Stinker on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 10:32am.
But Perry is no "rock-hard conservative". A RHC would not give in-state tuition to Illegal Aliens, nor would a RHC call us Tea Partiers heartless. A Conservative, yes. Somewhat at least, but he is not the ideal canidate.
If he turns out to be the nominee I will vote for him, bit we can do better. Santorum, Cain, or Bachmann.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
He's been governor for over a decade
Submitted by Texndoc on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 10:38am.
And I like what he's done for me as a resident. So I'm voting Perry.
If a liberal falls on his face and no body cares,
Submitted by 26CX on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 9:21am.
does it still make a noise? ;)
One way to find out
Submitted by jon_torlin on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 11:23am.
Ask Rhandi Rhodes,you can get your answer there. Too bad there was no video of that to get a definitive answer.
-Jon
A guy who falls in love with
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 9:27am.
A guy who falls in love with another guy because of the crease in his pants shouldn't be trumpeting his opinion on what is "professional."
And David, many of us think that the LAST thing we need is another "professional" politician.
Or anything else for that
Submitted by rockyracoon on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 4:31pm.
Or anything else for that matter.
Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
I wonder which Republican - if any
Submitted by katiejane on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 9:36am.
would meet with Brooks' approval. Maybe Huntsman?
My guess would be
Submitted by 26CX on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 9:44am.
any republican who doesn't pose a threat to Obama.
I think I know someone
Submitted by StarAZ on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 1:11pm.
I think I know someone who is voting for someone's pants...
Looks like the liberal,
Submitted by jessieH on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 1:56pm.
Looks like the liberal, socialist, Democrats really want to get Romney as the Republican candidate. The question is, do we want a RINO as the Republican candidate, or, do we want a conservative? Do we let the same people that put us in this mess tell us who to vote for, or do we tell them to shove it where their head is, up Obama's backside?
What's really fascinating about the Cain thing...
Submitted by krendler on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 3:58pm.
is that after this vague smear is thrown out there to create a media frenzy:
- The "victims" supposedly "aren't allowed" to come forward and given any details.
- Politico refuses to name sources while 1) Calling Cain a liar and 2) demanding that Cain "tell all."
In other words, throw out a vague, unsubstantiated claim at a conservative presidential candidate for something that supposedly happened 15 years ago, then attack him relentlessly for denying the claim and not providing "details" that might not actually exist.
All while the tabloid and the accusers sit back and laugh, denying any obligation to explain anything.
Only in America with our absolutely corrupt mainstream media.