The below is a piece I wrote in March 2009, reproduced almost in its entirety, entitled "Did Obama lay bare his agenda to David Brooks?" I have considered republishing it for many months, but withheld doing so because the evidence was not unequivocal. In his press conference yesterday, however, Barack Obama crossed the Rubicon, making it clear that he supports cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Was it abysmally poor negotiation, or did Obama create the political environment to obtain the exact result he always wanted? By the time you finish reading the below, you will understand exactly why I have republished this, because the answer becomes clear.
Here it is: Did Obama lay bare his agenda to David Brooks?
Over at Open Left, diarist Frankly0 appears to have uncovered political dynamite. S/he makes a strong circumstantial case that President Obama himself was one of "4 senior Adminstration officials" who visited David Brooks at the beginning of this month after he had written an article harshly critical of Obama's budget. If Frankly0 is correct, then the agenda David Brooks relayed in his next column has to be regarded as coming from Obama himself. And that economic agenda is, I submit, explosive.