Tested Over Time

The New York Times ^ | March 28, 2008 | David Brooks

[Puzzleman]

Barack Obama says: “John McCain is determined to carry out four more years of George Bush’s failed policies.” Obama is a politician, so it’s normal that he’d choose to repeat the lines that some of his followers want to hear. But before people buy that argument, I’d ask them to read three speeches.

--snip--

...he signaled that the foreign policy debate of the coming months will be very different from the one of the past six years. Anybody who thinks McCain is merely continuing the Bush agenda is not paying attention.

[Puzzleman]

It's not great, but considering that it comes from the NYT, it's surprisingly honest.

[shrinkermd]

Good take on Senator McCain. He is consistently underestimated on FR. Usually, the problem is his effort with Senator Kennedy (and with President Bush)to deal with the illegals.

Limbaugh has had a field day with this. But when he is asked how he plans to deport 12 million people, he lapses into a vague statement as to not being in favor of deportation; of course Limbaugh like his critics here offer no workable alternative. Then they will say, “you understand what illegal means don’t you?” By using this as an argument they prove most don’t know that deportation is a civil, not a criminal, matter.

The North Vietnamese underestimated Senator McCain. Senator
Thompson, Governor Romney, Congressman Tancredo and Congressman Hunter all underestimated him as well. Senator Obama thinks Senator McCain can be dismissed with political slogans.

I don’t know if Senator McCain wins, but he surely is superior to anything offered by the Democrats and may possibly be, as Brooks notes, more than capable of crafting a new joint foreign policy with our democratic foreign allies.

[kenavi]

As Peggy Noonan wrote, McCain has to show us the unifying vision that drives him to be President. If he does, the American people will forgive him his share of fatuousness and personal missteps (cheating on his wife, getting seduced by Keating).

McCain has the decency not to have bragged "I told you so" upon the slaughter of the Marines in Lebanon.

Candidate Dole was a remnant of a previous conflict. McCain's wartime experience suits him perfectly to lead the current one.

[neverdem]

It's not great, but considering that it comes from the NYT, it's surprisingly honest.

I believe David Brooks worked for National Review, the Washington Times and the Weekly Standard prior to the NY Times. If he keeps away from sociology, he can be very good.

All Hail Moore

The Grand Delusion

Unfortunately, neither Brooks nor McRINO seem capable of dealing effectively with The Disgrace of Liberalism.