Editing David Brooks (commentator) (section)

=== Presidents elections and candidates ===
Brooks was long a supporter of [[John McCain]]; however, he disliked McCain's [[John McCain 2008 presidential campaign|2008 running mate]], [[Sarah Palin]], calling her a "cancer" on the Republican Party, and citing her as the reason he voted for Obama in the [[2008 US presidential election|2008 presidential election]].<ref name="palin">{{cite news |last=Shea |first=Danny |date=October 8, 2008 |title=David Brooks: Sarah Palin "Represents A Fatal Cancer To The Republican Party" |website=[[The Huffington Post]] |publisher=[[Huffington Post Media Group]] |location=New York City |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/david-brooks-sarah-palin_n_133001.html |access-date=February 16, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Stephens |first1=Bret |last2=Brooks |first2=David |date=2023-01-11 |title=Opinion {{!}} The Party's Over for Us. Where Do We Go Now? |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/11/opinion/republican-party-future.html |access-date=2023-02-17 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He has referred to Palin as a "joke," unlikely ever to win the Republican nomination.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_62kczoj3f8 David Brooks: Sarah Palin Is A 'Joke'], ''[[TPMTv]]'' on [[YouTube]], November 15, 2009</ref> But he later admitted during a C-SPAN interview that he had gone too far in his previous "cancer" comments about Palin, which he regretted, and simply stated he was not a fan of her values.<ref>{{cite web |date=December 4, 2011 |title=''In Depth'' with David Brooks |url=http://www.c-span.org/video/?302718-1/depth-david-brooks |access-date=April 25, 2015 |website=[[C-SPAN]] |quote=Host: Does David regret his comment about Sarah Palin and her cancer on the Republican party? Brooks: Yeah, I do. I think it was some lunch affair for some magazine, and I was just mouthing off, and so I – I'm not a fan of hers, but that's a little strong.}}</ref>

Brooks has frequently expressed admiration for President [[Barack Obama]]. In an August 2009 profile of Brooks, ''[[The New Republic]]'' describes his first encounter with Obama in the spring of 2005: "Usually when I talk to senators, while they may know a policy area better than me, they generally don't know political philosophy better than me. I got the sense he knew ''both'' better than me...I remember distinctly an image of – we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I'm thinking, (a) he's going to be president and (b) he'll be a very good president."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Sherman |first=Gabriel |title=The Courtship: The story behind the Obama-Brooks bromance |magazine=[[The New Republic]] |url=http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/the-courtship |date=August 31, 2009 |access-date=September 11, 2009}}</ref> Brooks appreciates that Obama thinks "like a writer," explaining, "He's a very writerly personality, a little aloof, exasperated. He's calm. He's not addicted to people."<ref name="chicago maroon" /> Two days after Obama's second autobiography, ''[[The Audacity of Hope]]'', hit bookstores, Brooks published a column in ''The New York Times'', titled "Run, Barack, Run," urging the Chicago politician to run for president.<ref>{{cite news |first=David |last=Brooks |title=Run, Barack, Run |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/19/opinion/19brooks.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York City|date=October 19, 2006 |access-date=September 11, 2009}}</ref> However, in December 2011, during a C-SPAN interview, Brooks expressed a more tempered opinion of Obama's presidency, giving Obama only a "B−" and saying that Obama's chances of re-election would be less than 50–50 if elections were held at that time.<ref>{{cite web|title=''In Depth'' with David Brooks|url=http://www.c-span.org/video/?302718-1/depth-david-brooks|website=[[C-SPAN]]|access-date=April 25, 2015|date=December 4, 2011|quote=Host: So how is the president doing? Brooks: You know, I think I'm a little disappointed that he didn't do [[National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform|Simpson-Bowles]]. I was a little disappointed in the way the [[National debt of the United States|debt]] has run up, and I don't blame him for running up the debt in the [[Recession of 2008|recession]], but I think we needed an exit strategy to get out of it. I think he could have done a little more to promote [[Economic growth|growth]], though I think given all the bad things it was going to be tough no matter who was president, no matter who did anything, it was going to be tough to promote growth. So I don't particularly blame him for that. I think he's conducted himself in pretty much an honest way. He's had very little [[Corruption in the United States|corruption]]. I still have great personal admiration for him. I'm more to his [[Conservatism in the United States|right]], but I give him no worse than a B−. I think he's made some mistakes, but I wouldn't say he's been a bad president.}}</ref> He stated, "I don't think he's integrated himself with people in Washington as much as he should have."<ref name="chicago maroon" /> However, in a February 2016 ''New York Times'' op-ed, Brooks admitted that he missed Obama during the 2016 primary season, admiring the president's "integrity" and "humanity," among other characteristics.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/opinion/i-miss-barack-obama.html|first=David|last=Brooks|title=I Miss Barack Obama|date=February 9, 2016|work=[[The New York Times]]|location=New York City}}</ref>

Regarding the 2016 election, Brooks spoke in support of [[Hillary Clinton]], applauding her ability to be "competent" and "normal" in comparison to her Republican counterpart, [[Donald Trump]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Schwartz |first=Ian |date=June 11, 2016 |title=David Brooks: People Will Be Sick Of Trump And Vote For Hillary, "She Will be Competent And Normal" |url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/06/11/david_brooks_people_will_be_sick_of_trump_and_vote_for_hillary_she_will_be_competent_and_normal.html |access-date=September 20, 2016 |work=[[Real Clear Politics]]}}</ref><ref name=":1">[[PBS NewsHour]]. "Shields and Brooks on 'anticlimactic' Clinton victory, Trump's 'moral chasm'." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, June 10, 2016. Web. September 20, 2016.</ref> In addition, Brooks noted that he believed Clinton would eventually be victorious in the election, as he foresaw that the general American public would become "sick of" Trump.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

When discussing the political emergence of Trump, Brooks strongly critiqued the candidate, most notably by authoring a ''New York Times'' op-ed he titled "No, Not Trump, Not Ever." In this piece, Brooks attacked Trump by arguing he is "epically unprepared to be president" and pointing out Trump's "steady obliviousness to accuracy."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brooks |first=David |date=March 18, 2016 |title=No, Not Trump, Not Ever |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York City |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/opinion/no-not-trump-not-ever.html |access-date=September 20, 2016}}</ref>

On the August 9, 2019, episode of the ''[[PBS NewsHour]]'', Brooks suggested Trump may be a [[sociopath]].<ref>{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=August 9, 2019 |title=David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart on Trump's mass shooting response (Read the Full Transcript) |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/david-brooks-and-jonathan-capehart-on-trumps-mass-shooting-response |access-date=August 10, 2019 |website=pbs.org |quote=And I look at that photo, I think, well, he's a sociopath. He's incapable of experiencing or showing empathy.}}</ref>