NYT's Brooks had recommended Biden - listed many good reasons on Friday

[gristy]

Barack Obama has decided upon a vice-presidential running mate. And while I don’t know who it is as I write, for the good of the country, I hope he picked Joe Biden.

Biden’s weaknesses are on the surface. He has said a number of idiotic things over the years and, in the days following his selection, those snippets would be aired again and again.

But that won’t hurt all that much because voters are smart enough to forgive the genuine flaws of genuine people. And over the long haul, Biden provides what Obama needs:

www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/opinion/22brooks.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

[NobleCynic]

1. Holy crap. Did you see his vitriolic piece of garbage today?

I guess Brooks got warned if he doesn't go off the deep end of partisanship again, he won't last. Toadie.

[DrZeeLit]

2. Yes. I saw Brooks's piece this morning. HORRIBLE. MEAN. AWFUL. And he's basically getting blasted

by the readership. It's running about 10 negative for every 1 positive response.
They hate today's column.

That said... I did read his Biden as best choice column and did a double take. It was thoughtful and logical and well-written. I had to do a double take.

I wonder how he'll view this Palin insanity.
Maybe, like many serious Repubs, he'll hope that she changes her mind, sort of a reverse-Eagleton.

[Wetzelbill]

5. It was childish

Brooks sometimes can be very good. He's written a few columns I thought were nearly brilliant. But he's good when he's talking about new ideas, things like that. His analytical skills, however, are horrible. Oh god, are they ever. I literally have read a Brooks column and it would be one of the best things I've read in awhile, and then he'll write like 5 of the dumbest columns in a row. Stuff that makes you wonder if he even lives in reality it's so inane.

But Brooks is a lot like many elitist types, Dem and Repub alike. He thinks he's so smart that he can do satire and sound like a genius, when really he comes off as an immature child who ate paint chips as a kid. Mean and dispirited. Like the little kid who tortured animals or something and mommy and daddy covered it up from the rest of the world.

[DrZeeLit]

6. I thought he was channeling Mo Dowd or he had some bad acid or....

[Wetzelbill]

4. Patton Oswalt was making fun of it on his blog

It might be private, not sure.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=67077201&blogID=428475864&Mytoken=90E6ECAD-C2CE-4F23-8703412727DB08A349787163

[northernlights]

3. is there a disinformation campaign going on?

Seriously. I was wondering this morning about the "leaks" about "disunity" out of Obama's up til now very tight campaign. Were they deliberate crumbs fed to the media to string along the media, and ultimately many who would otherwise not have tuned in? So they'd come to the campaign expecting a replay of the 68 protests and disunity. Only to see night after night of a total unified lovefest completed with 78,000 people singing kumbala? Seriously, the aerial views of that placed were stunning. Totally stunning.

And then there's Brooks. He's been playing the Obama/celebrity airhead meme for a while. I was totally thrown by his positives about a Biden choice.

And then this week, after the first 2 nights, he seemed totally despondent. And then this piece of plagiarized tripe this morning...

Was he fed a leak about a different veep choice? By pushing Biden, did he think he was setting up Obama for a "see, he chose an inexperienced airhead instead of somebody substantial like Biden" only to be thrown totally off message when Biden was the choice.

Was his plagiarized tripe about and "airhead Obama" prepared in advance of last night's substance-full speech? Or did he drink a little too much in the very thin mountain air?

Whatever it is, his attacks this week have been desperate. And seriously, this piece of tripe writes him off as a total hack. When the rethugs go down, Brooks is going to go down with them. He doesn't have the skills to keep his career alive in such an environment.