Based on the top post, this entire thread is silly. I like David Brooks a lot. But, we need to consider his venue or forum, which in this case, was Laura Ingraham. All pundits and commentators will "adapt their tone", at least somewhat, to their audience. Shit...I caught an instance of Lawrence O'Donnell interviewing Ann Coulter and she came off almost human!
So anyway...know that Laura Ingraham's schtick is about as red
as it gets and assume Brooks tweaked himself as far right as he was willing to go, his "critique" of Obama might be perceived as almost glowing in PRAISE of Obama!
Look what Brooks says. He says that he "feels" that Obama is liberal at heart, but that he's NOT governed overtly-liberally. The WORST thing that Brooks could come up with for an Ingraham forum, was Brooks's ESP tells him that Obama thinks liberal thoughts.