David Brooks Quotes
I think Trump's attention span is super low. I don't think he has the expertise to actually run a foreign policy.
Brooks, David. PBS NewsHour, Public Broadcasting Service, 2016.
This was a subtle criticism of the Presidential Candidate Donald Trump whose only experience was in real estate development, reality TV, and promotion. This was in contrast to his opponent Hillary Clinton who had had vast experience at many roles and levels of government.
Alluding to the practice of advisors and handlers scripting and packaging presidential candidates for conventions and debates:
Expert and political opinion is divided on this view. Kennedy himself did not hold it. His first year in the White House was a triumph of oratory, but he felt privately that he had failed thus far in his Presidency.
on the decision of whether to use military force against the Assad Syrian regime for their using chemical warfare against their own people
While this probably was a slip of the tongue, President Bush and governor Perry both had civil right and individual had rights as a lower priority than a individual responsibility, strong growth economy or the military. There were many who really believed that the two men really thought excessive personal reedom a problem that people and the government must be protected from, like freedom for a woman to choose an abortion. For Perry in particular many thought that if this was a slip of the tounge, it was likely a Freudian slip as it what he really wants.
In his relationship with FDR General Marshall was the Senior Army Officer and Chief of Staff of the Army during WWII. What was amazing about Marshall was how he argued forcefully from his narrower perspective as the leader of the army, but did not resent it when President Roosevelt decided differently citing wider, non-military consideration. Roosevelt had the almost unique ability to make decisions from the big picture perspective and have most of his subordinates with narrower responsibility and perspective accept understandingly.
Welsh met with the President on several occasions at the White House since he served on one of the major Presidential Advisory Committees.
Trump, in contrast, to other president, in times of crisis, tendned to send tweets on the subject--often very political and divisive--instead of takeing the kind of leadership steps taht were taken by the otehr presidents of the 20th adn 21st century.
David Brooks is a conservative political and cultural commentator who writes for The New York Times. He has worked as a film critic for The Washington Times, a reporter and later op-ed editor for The Wall Street Journal, a senior editor at The Weekly Standard from its inception, a contributing editor at Newsweek, and The Atlantic Monthly, and a commentator on NPR and the PBS NewsHour.
