Quiz: Which of the following is an excerpt from the David Brooks column in today’s New York Times and which is a bit from the ad for Michael Moore’s new book in “The Arts” section of today’s Times? (H/t, CJR reader):
A) “How many Democrats does it take to lose the most winnable election in American history? Not many. Just a few ‘close advisors’ to Barack Obama who tell him a bunch of asinine stuff and he ends up listening to them instead of his own heart.”
B) “[Barack ] Obama may yet recover his core focus. Now he has to preserve it against his most terrifying foes: the ‘experts’ in his own party.”
Brooks even mentions Moore in his column — to describe one variety of bad advice some of Obama’s “most terrifying foes” (example B above is Brooks) are offering:
[There] are still others who say Obama needs to get bare-knuckled. He needs to hammer McCain above the belt and below. Apparently, these people have decided that having nominated Obama, the party needs to be led by Michael Moore.
Actually, a party led by Michael Moore, to hear Moore tell it in his ad, would do about what Brooks prescribes in his column: In Moore’s words, let Obama listen to “his own heart;” in Brooks’s, have Obama stay “true to his core identity.” While Brooks’s opinion appears on A17 and Moore’s on E7, could it be that they’re really on the same page?
