David Brooks finds a nut

The fact that both Bill Kristol and David Brooks have New York Times columns sometimes makes me feel like I need to steel wool my brain. Hacks the both of them and frequently insufferable know-it-alls to boot but every once in a while, a little bit of reality slips past their defenses and onto the Editorial page. Today was Brooks’ day, in which he grudgingly admits that Obama fellow may be alright after all.

He doesn’t have F.D.R.’s joyful nature or Reagan’s happy outlook, but he is analytical. That’s why this William Ayers business doesn’t stick. He may be liberal, but he is never wild. His family is bourgeois. His instinct is to flee the revolutionary gesture in favor of the six-point plan.

This was not evident back in the “fierce urgency of now” days, but it is now. And it is easy to sketch out a scenario in which he could be a great president. He would be untroubled by self-destructive demons or indiscipline. With that cool manner, he would see reality unfiltered. He could gather — already has gathered — some of the smartest minds in public policy, and, untroubled by intellectual insecurity, he could give them free rein. Though he is young, it is easy to imagine him at the cabinet table, leading a subtle discussion of some long-term problem.

You can almost feel how much it hurt him to write this.