MaxedOutMama
Saturday, October 23, 2004
An Old David Brooks column
Op-Ed Columnist: The Mysterious Stranger
This is a column from December 9, 2003 about Howard Dean. I reread it on a whim today, and was struck by the fact that if I changed the name....
"But Dean runs less on biography than any other candidate in recent years. When he began running for president, he left his past behind, along with the encumbrances that go with it."
"He'll make a string of outspoken comments over a period of weeks — on "re-regulating" the economy or gay marriage — but none of them have any relation to the others. When you actually try to pin him down on a policy, you often find there is nothing there."
"For example, asked how we should proceed in Iraq, he says hawkishly, "We can't pull out responsibly." Then on another occasion he says dovishly, "Our troops need to come home," and explains, fantastically, that we need to recruit 110,000 foreign troops to take the place of our reserves. Then he says we should not be spending billions more dollars there."
"At each moment, he appears outspoken, blunt and honest. But over time he is incoherent and contradictory."
This is a column from December 9, 2003 about Howard Dean. I reread it on a whim today, and was struck by the fact that if I changed the name....
"But Dean runs less on biography than any other candidate in recent years. When he began running for president, he left his past behind, along with the encumbrances that go with it."
"He'll make a string of outspoken comments over a period of weeks — on "re-regulating" the economy or gay marriage — but none of them have any relation to the others. When you actually try to pin him down on a policy, you often find there is nothing there."
"For example, asked how we should proceed in Iraq, he says hawkishly, "We can't pull out responsibly." Then on another occasion he says dovishly, "Our troops need to come home," and explains, fantastically, that we need to recruit 110,000 foreign troops to take the place of our reserves. Then he says we should not be spending billions more dollars there."
"At each moment, he appears outspoken, blunt and honest. But over time he is incoherent and contradictory."
