David Brooks: Not enough GOP experts

In his column on John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin, David Brooks buries the lede, stating that "[t]here simply aren’t enough Republican experts left to staff an administration" for John McCain:

If McCain is elected, he will face conditions tailor-made to foster disorder. He will be leading a divided and philosophically exhausted party. There simply aren’t enough Republican experts left to staff an administration, so he will have to throw together a hodgepodge with independents and Democrats.

Brooks is acknowledging an uncomfortable fact -- ideological think tank "experts" are not a substitute for geniune experts from the reality-based community. Sadly, the right's reliance on think tank agitprop and repeated attacks on science have decimated the ranks of qualified potential GOP appointees. It's bad for the country when one party is too closely aligned with scientific expertise.

Comments

[Howard Craft]

I think you need a different term, one other than than "scientific expertise", in your last sentence.

[Jinchi]

The most obnoxious quote from the Brooks piece.

"And she has experienced more of typical American life than either McCain or his opponent."

Why is it that spending your life in a tiny town in the middle of remote Alaska makes you more typically American than those living in Honolulu or New York or Phoenix? This is a big country and the only thing that's typically American is the fact that a lot of other Americans live very different lives than you do.

[KC45s]

"And she has experienced more of typical American life than either McCain or his opponent."

Or anyone writing for the Times. Maybe she can replace Brooks after election day.