David Brooks on Obama: From Tide to Slide

I like to read David Brooks's columns, they are always informative and usually insightful and this new one on "The Obama Slide" is no exception. I advise reading the whole thing. I do wish he'd ditch the pink shirt and tie, but there's no bean-counting for taste, as they say.

But I can't agree with his short concluding paragraphs:

The president’s challenge now is to halt the slide. That doesn’t mean giving up his goals. It means he has to align his proposals to the values of the political center: fiscal responsibility, individual choice and decentralized authority.

Events have pushed Barack Obama off to the left. Time to rebalance.

I'm sorry, but yes it does mean giving up his goals. His goal is exactly greater centralized authority and less individual choice. And no, "events" have not pushed Obama to the left. His ideology has always been left.

Brooks has always liked Obama and as a media moderate has been somewhat bewitched by his intellectual prowess and speaking ability. So these rose-colored glasses might explain why he has missed the obvious.

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