Obama Loses David Brooks

New York Times columnist David Brooks writes: 

I’m a sap, a specific kind of sap. I’m an Obama Sap.

When the president said the unemployed can’t wait 14 more months for help and we had to do something right away, I believed him. When administration officials called around saying that the possibility of a double-dip recession was horrifyingly real and that it would be irresponsible not to come up with a package that could pass right away, I believed them.

I liked Obama’s payroll tax cut ideas and urged Republicans to play along. But of course I’m a sap. When the president unveiled the second half of his stimulus it became clear that this package has nothing to do with helping people right away or averting a double dip. This is a campaign marker, not a jobs bill.

It recycles ideas that couldn’t get passed even when Democrats controlled Congress.

Read the rest here. Obama's deficit plan has caused the Times's more conservative columnist Ross Douthat to retract his analysis that Obama would position himself as a moderate in 2012: "Based on the actual details of the deficit plan that the administration just released ... it seems that the president will be running for re-election as Nancy Pelosi instead."