Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Earth to David Brooks

I am stunned. This, from David Brooks' column today:
We’re going to have two extraordinary nominees for president this year. This could be one of the great general election campaigns in American history. The only thing that could ruin it is if the candidates become demagogues and hurl accusations at each other that are an insult to reality and common sense.
Barack Obama and John McCain are lots of things, but to assert that either of them (let alone both) is an extraordinary nominee is to avoid all rational inferences. McCain is an extraordinary patriot. Obama has extraordinary self-regard. But does anyone other than David Brooks think that McCain and Obama represent the best America has to offer in the way of presidential nominees?

And Brooks' second assertion is as laughable as his first. One of the great campaigns in history? really? How much history does Brooks mean to encompass? Brooks' American history cannot include Adams v. Jefferson, Quincy Adams v. Jackson, Lincoln v. Everyone, Truman v. Dewey, Kennedy v. Nixon, Reagan v. Carter, or Bush v. Gore.

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