Not so funny when it's you

Like most of us David Brooks doesn’t have the talent to write a really good column which is of course why he wrote this one. But if he were an actual writer—and not merely the heir-apparent to a swiftly tilting William Safire—I’m sure this is the column he would have written.

David Brooks: I know this column is crap. I know my career, my party, and possibly my whole sense of self are made up rationalizations, half-truths, and fanciful red state/blue state binaries. Do you think I wanted it this way? Do you think I don’t see my sanity going the way of Bush’s public support?

But you see I am a war columnist, and being a war columnist means forgoing thoughtful interesting writing in favor of cribbing the cast off notes of Peggy Noonan.

I look at my fellow columnists Krugman and Herbert. They seem to think that the job of a columnist during wartime is to remain firmly rooted in reality.

But they should understand that for me reality is complicated and unpleasant nothing is as important to me as escaping it.

I know I could be fired. I don’t know who reads me or even care. But I do know that all will be right with the world if Bush is reelected.