Via Wonkette comes the essential video of suburban anthropologist/promoter of hyper-timidity David Brooks, reacting to Bobby Jindal's rebuttal speech about as strenuously as Brooks ever reacts to anything. I'll sum up: DISASTER NIHILISM INSANE DISASTER. Basically, the lyrics of the typical Norwegian black metal band, spoken aloud by the author of Bobos in Paradise. Anyway, for everyone who wanted a more substantive response to the man who launched a thousand channel changes than, "OMG he is Kenneth the Page," there you go.
[WATCH.]
LEHRER: How well did he do?
BROOKS: Not so well. You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I opposed the stimulus package - I thought it was poorly drafted - but to come up at this moment in history with a stale, "government is the problem...we can't trust the government"...it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic, now. They may not like the way the Congress passed the stimulus bill. The idea that government is going to have no role in this...in a moment where only the Federal government is big enough to do stuff...to just ignore all that and say government's the problem...corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending - it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. There's an intra-Republican debate: some people say the Republican party lost its way because it got too moderate, some people say they got too weird or too conservative. He thinks they got too moderate, and he's making that case. I think it's insane. I think it's a disaster for the party. I just think it's unfortunate right now.