Being a glutton for punishment, I decided to peruse the latest article from David Brooks, and it was an unremarkably workmanlike essay about Sen. Joh Thune (R-SD). All in all, it was a positive write up of the Junior Senator from South Dakota that would have passed me by, save this barely relevant pivot from a Thune essay to a Teen Beat praise of the Creased Pants Of Awesomeness.

Republican pros are attracted to Thune because he could rally the hard-core conservatives without scaring away the suburbanites. His weakness is that he’s never really worked outside of government, and he’s almost never shown a maverick side.

At the moment, Republicans are riding an emotional wave. Karl Rove had a piece in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal that captures the mood: Obama is being defined as a liberal. Independents are fleeing. The political tide is shifting.

That overstates things. Obama remains the most talented political figure of the age {so much so, he is helping the not Obama crowd swell like David Brooks's naughty parts when he sees Obama's pants-ed}. After health care passes {?-ed}, he will pivot and pick some fights with his own party over spending {yeah. Because he has fought tooth and nail with his own party so far-ed} He’ll solidify his standing with independents {how so? By his sheer awesomeness?-ed}, and if the economy recovers {wow. More optimism in Obama than the economy. Way to go, David!-ed}, he could go into his re-election with as much momentum as Ronald Reagan enjoyed in 1984 {or he could go into 2012 with the momentum of noted statesmen Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, and Herbert Hoover-ed}.

Republicans are still going to have to do root-and-branch renovation if they hope to provide compelling answers to issues like middle-class economic anxiety {oh tell us, wise one, what those answers are-ed}. But in the meantime, people like Thune offer Republicans a way to connect fiscal discipline with traditional small-town values, a way to tap into rising populism in a manner that is optimistic, uplifting and nice.

Sheesh. If Brooks had merely mentioned that Obama needed to do X,Y,  and Z, that would be one thing. But Brooksie is doing a lot of assuming and wishing about things over which he has no control over, and Obama has no clue how to handle. And if the temple of Obama crumbles, what will David do with himself?

Posted by: eddiebear at 04:49 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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