David Brooks on Obama and salad bars

It's easy to be a pop sociologist because you can just make things up:

On MSNBC, David Brooks asserted that "less educated" and "downscale" people "look at [Sen. Barack] Obama, and they don't see anything," adding: "And so, Obama's problem is he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who could go into an Applebee's salad bar, and people think he fits in naturally there." Applebee's officials have confirmed to Media Matters that its restaurants do not have salad bars.

The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson had the best response: "I tend to take the sociology a little more seriously when it's delivered by people who actually eat at Applebee's, you know, more than once in a decade."

Brooks's statement follows in the proud footsteps of Chris Matthews, who criticized Obama for shooting pool, which Matthews asserted falsely is mostly played by "people with money," and for the way he ordered orange juice at a diner.