NY Times columnist David Brooks' piece today is a humorous biographical sketch of Mitt Romney, skewering the forthcoming attempts by the RNC to pad the candidate's story with enough folksy Americana (mayonnaise) to slide gently down the electorate's gullet. A sample: "After a successful stint at Bain, Romney was lured away to run the Winter Olympics, the second most Caucasian institution on earth, after the G.O.P." Sounds about right—but wait, maybe we're not sufficiently God-fearing or didn't wear enough navy blazers when we were teenagers to pick up what Brooks is putting down.
Ben Smith at BuzzFeed briefly spoke with the Times columnist at the GOP convention, and he denied having any intention of skewering Romney (presumably Brooks said this as several men in suits gripped baseball bats several feet away).
I ran into Brooks in the sweaty line outside the convention's media center, where he was rueful and said he should have anticipated the incomprehension at a column that was "originally intended as a parody of the media storyline."
Originally? Meaning, before he realized the unadulterated joy that came from lambasting the candidate, who, in Brooks' "media parodying" words, "barely won the 2012 Republican primaries after a grueling nine-month campaign, running unopposed" ?
The reaction, [Brooks] said, was "regrettable but predictable."
"Taste in humor is entirely partisan."
Riiiiight. A famous philosopher once said: "A lot of truth is said in jest."
