David Brooks snaps out of it: "Barack Obama is not who we thought he was ..."

I have enjoyed David (Bobos in Paradise) Brooks' columns and commentary over the years. But starting last year something happened to him and I kept reading his columns and listening to his commentary over on PBS and wondering, now what happened? Is that really David Brooks or have the Pod-People snatched him away in the night?

Apparently, he's now snapped out of it. A post on Twitter says he's woken up from his Matrix. Here's an excerpt from his latest column in the New York Times:

The U.S. has never been a society riven by class resentment. Yet the Obama budget is predicated on a class divide. The president issued a read-my-lips pledge that no new burdens will fall on 95 percent of the American people. All the costs will be borne by the rich and all benefits redistributed downward.

The U.S. has always been a decentralized nation, skeptical of top-down planning. Yet, the current administration concentrates enormous power in Washington, while plan after plan emanates from a small group of understaffed experts.

The U.S. has always had vibrant neighborhood associations. But in its very first budget, the Obama administration raises the cost of charitable giving. It punishes civic activism and expands state intervention.

The U.S. has traditionally had a relatively limited central government. But federal spending as a share of G.D.P. is zooming from its modern norm of 20 percent to an unacknowledged level somewhere far beyond.

Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was.

That's the problem with the whole concept of "moderate." Moderate is defined by what you are not, not by who you are. Moderate means "I'll ride the bus with 'em, but I won't share a taxi." Moderates don't really ride the bus, anyway, preferring to drive themselves - or better yet, just walk. Well, it's gotten awfully cold outside lately and perhaps that just did the trick.

Here's more:

Those of us in the moderate tradition — the Hamiltonian tradition that believes in limited but energetic government — thus find ourselves facing a void. We moderates are going to have to assert ourselves. We’re going to have to take a centrist tendency that has been politically feckless and intellectually vapid and turn it into an influential force.

The first task will be to block the excesses of unchecked liberalism. In the past weeks, Democrats have legislated provisions to dilute welfare reform, restrict the inflow of skilled immigrants and gut a voucher program designed for poor students. It will be up to moderates to raise the alarms against these ideological outrages.

The first thing, David, that you will need to restrain yourself from thinking is that you're a moderate. You're a conservative (as Reagan was a conservative), but a stuffy stuck-up one lately. You want your martinis shaken not stirred. You think you are more sophisticated than the rough-rassle that are running the Republican party (and perhaps you are). It's just so embarrassing to show up on the cocktail circuit and have to explain. One might be booted off PBS if the word got out. The New York Times does not do Rush.

Well, enough of that. Moderates are unfunny. Americans like funny. We like wit. Get funny, David, and there's no problem. See, Rush is satire. We've all known that for years. Didn't you get the memo?

At some point America is going to wake up and realize that the president is not funny. In fact, he just told the Prime Minister of England no joint press conference, no joint photo-op and certainly no pics with the wives, thank you very much. That was then, this is now. So much for America's best friend, just get back on that plane and go home to your Monarchy.

Glad you're back, David. But remember - you are a conservative - a conservative with taste, perhaps, but a classic conservative - even William F. Buckley (remember him?) wanted to legalize pot. Just work on funny and you'll do just fine.