David Brooks, drama queen?

You wouldn’t expect it from such a moderate guy, but consider this, from Meet The Press:

MR. [TOM] BROKAW: Let’s begin with you, if we can, David. There are lots of declarations that are being made in Washington this week, either apocalyptic, that this is the end of the Obama presidency, or it’s the deliverance of the Obama presidency. Are they both exaggerated?

MR. DAVID BROOKS: No. No. The, the White House has said, “We’re all in.” They’re betting their whole presidency on getting this thing passed, or at least the first year of the presidency.

Tom Friedman agreed, saying, “I think if he doesn’t get this through, I really don’t know what the rest of his presidency is going to be about.”

Come on, people. Warning darkly of the end of a presidency is one of the biggest cliches in political journalism. I say this as a Republican, who wouldn’t exactly mind if Obama were a lame duck. Remember how people asked if Bill Clinton was still relevant after the Republican Revolution in 1994? Or whether Bush was a lame duck after the failure of Social Security reform, then again after the 2006 election? Or going way back, how about the NY Times famous declaration in 1983 that the Reagan presidency was a manifest failure?

Never underestimate the power of the presidency. Obama will have almost three, and very possibly seven more years in office. We barely know what the political landscape will look like next year, let alone five years from now.

As for David Brooks, I’m only being hard on him because I like him so much.