David Brooks, conservative columnist and former Bush sycophant, yesterday: [Sarah Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party. When I first started in journalism, I worked at the National Review for Bill Buckley. And Buckley famously said he'd rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the … Continue reading The power of ideas
In the wake of David Brooks's critical piece on Sarah Palin, I was going to point out that perhaps I was wrong about the right wing pundit corps. Maybe they don't marshal any argument, however foolish, in support of their "guy," whoever their guy is, or however silly his policy prescriptions. That would have been … Continue reading American idle
In today's New York Times David Brooks argues that Sarah Palin does not have the experience to be Vice President and therefore President. He joins a growing chorus (he says) of conservative pundits who make this argument. I can't say of course that I disagree with him or them. But my interest in punditry here … Continue reading Now you tell me
Now perhaps that the answer is likely to be "sadly, no," George Will no longer wants to hear the question: "are you better off than you were four years ago?" In all fairness, his problem is McCain's use of this very Reaganite phrase. When Reagan used it, of course, it made sense: The nation considered … Continue reading Better off
Pundits rarely criticize each other by name. So when they do, it's fun to point it out. Here's Michael Kinsley on right wing sophistry punditry re Sarah Palin, John McCain's pick for Vice President: But that's so five minutes ago, before Sarah Palin. Already, conservative pundits have come up with creative explanations for McCain's choice … Continue reading This American life
Put this in the department of specious comparisons. David Brooks seems to be in China, where he personally interviewed some of the survivors of the devastating earthquake that struck Sichuan province. He concludes: These were weird, unnerving interviews, and I don’t pretend to understand what’s going on in the minds of people who have suffered … Continue reading The Manchurian Pundit
E.J.Dionne writes in today's Post: The great opportunity this year for less scrupulous Republican strategists is that Obama is both black and a Columbia-and-Harvard-educated former professor who lived in the intellectually rarified precincts of Hyde Park in Chicago, Manhattan's Upper West Side and Cambridge, Mass. They can go after him subtly on race and overtly … Continue reading Sojourner Truth
We have a category here for politicians, but we rarely use it. Unless they're making specific claims about policy or about reality (which they really don't do in speeches), one can't really expect them to be subject to the minimal standards of coherent reasoning. They're not really reasoning, after all, when they make speeches–they're motivating, … Continue reading You’re no Jack Neibuhr
One can certainly trust the Post to select op-eds on the important issues of the day. Richard Cohen edifies his readers with this gem: Tattoos are the emblems of our age. They bristle from the biceps of men in summer shirts, from the lower backs of women as they ascend stairs, from the shoulders of … Continue reading Teneo vestri vox*
David Brooks has discovered that human behavior is more complicated (and the science more uncertain) than some headlines he vaguely remembers seem to have suggested: It wasn’t long ago that headlines were blaring about the discovery of an aggression gene, a happiness gene or a depression gene. The implication was obvious: We’re beginning to understand … Continue reading Methodological individualism