As is his specialty, David Brooks has cracked the mystery of Barack Obama’s poor poll numbers. Is it Obama’s thin resume? His lack of foreign policy bona fides? His impotent campaign? His refusal to engage in policy debate? The fact that 20% of America thinks he’s a Muslim? That his crackpot pastor said GOD DAMN AMERICA on video? No!! In his column today, David Brooks pegs this one on the fact that Obama has loose cultural roots, which happen to be Brooks’ other specialty. (I’m sure you’ve read Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense.)
Brooks writes:
There is a sense that because of his unique background and temperament, Obama lives apart. He put one foot in the institutions he rose through on his journey but never fully engaged. As a result, voters have trouble placing him in his context, understanding the roots and values in which he is ineluctably embedded.
Although he has no poll data or “facts” to rely upon, David Brooks (the Canadian) is uniquely endowed with the ability to gauge every American trend there is and tell us exactly how we feel and why. If David Brooks didn’t write for the New York Times, you might wonder what makes him qualified to paint with such a broad stroke, but David Brooks does, and you don’t.
When we’re judging candidates (or friends), we don’t just judge the individuals but the milieus that produced them.
So true. I know I’m not the only person who won’t have a drink with a guy unless I approve of the milieu that produced him. How else would I know that he appreciates a fine Côtes du Rhône or David Brooks?
If Obama is fully a member of any club — and perhaps he isn’t — it is the club of smart post-boomer meritocrats. We now have a cohort of rising leaders, Obama’s age and younger, who climbed quickly through elite schools and now ascend from job to job. They are conscientious and idealistic while also being coldly clever and self-aware. It’s not clear what the rest of America makes of them.
So, cautiously, the country watches. This should be a Democratic wipeout. But voters seem to be slow to trust a sojourner they cannot place.
There you have it. In case you thought Obama can’t win because he’s a liberal, black, law professor, or closet Muslim, you stand corrected. America will NOT elect a sojourner.
TAGS: Barack Obama, David Brooks, Muslim, New York Times, polls
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