David Brooks on Barack Obama

David Brooks has been considered one of the intellectuals behind the mainstream conservative movement in the US. This is the wing of the Republican party that has become fed up with the Religious Right's hijacking of that party, which to a large extent is to blame for the Republicans' diminishing prospects. As I said in my previous posts, I rarely agree with Brooks on anything, but the man at least makes coherent arguments and insights that engage even those who disagree.

On Monday, David Brooks gave an interview to the Atlantic Monthly in which he, to his great credit, lashed out at the ugliness of the Palin phenomenon that has dragged the Republicans--and everyone else with them--into the mud. Describing Sarah Palin as a "fatal cancer to the Republican Party" Brooks lamented the anti-intellectualism of today's Republicanism that has been embodied by 8 years of George Bush. Nostalgically remembering the time when even conservatives cherished learning and engaging with ideas, Brooks admits that both Palin and Bush, and those in their wing of the party, seem to despise ideas in their entirety. He shows considerable intellectual honesty when he admits that Sarah Palin is "absolutely" not qualified to be President.

The most interesting part of the interview is David Brooks' story of his encounters with Barack Obama. His observations, I think, show why Barack Obama is such a fascinating figure. I quote David Brooks at length:

"Obama has the great intellect. I was interviewing Obama a couple years ago, and I'm getting nowhere with the interview, it's late in the night, he's on the phone, walking off the Senate floor, he's cranky. Out of the blue I say, 'Ever read a guy named Reinhold Niebuhr?' And he says, 'Yeah.' So i say, 'What did Niebuhr mean to you?' For the next 20 minutes, he gave me a perfect description of Reinhold Niebuhr's thought, which is a very subtle thought process based on the idea that you have to use power while it corrupts you. And I was dazzled, I felt the tingle up my knee as Chris Matthews would say.

And the other thing that does separate Obama from just a pure intellectual: he has tremendous powers of social perception. And this is why he's a politician, not an academic. A couple of years ago, I was writing columns attacking the Republican congress for spending too much money. And I throw in a few sentences attacking the Democrats to make myself feel better. And one morning I get an email from Obama saying, 'David, if you wanna attack us, fine, but you're only throwing in those sentences to make yourself feel better.' And it was a perfect description of what was going through my mind. And everybody who knows Obama all have these stories to tell about his capacity for social perception."