I like David Brooks a lot. Sometimes he writes stuff of such intelligence that he really stuns you with his insights.

A bit back, I penned (yet again) another harsh take on one of his columns, reflecting my tendency to either love or hate his work recently, especially on the subject of Obama.

Now, it's clear Brooks wants McCain and wants him bad, and that, after a brief flirtation with Obama in the primaries, he's written several pieces that--in my mind--concentrate on his fakeness as a human and thus his being too weird to be a leader.

I did tee off on the piece below, and too harshly at that.

You can almost track the onsets of my sinus infections by the nasty posts I write, and this was definitely one of them. I try to watch that when I know I'm not feeling great, but it happens and I do apologize for the tone, especially after yesterday's post on comment decorum.

Ouch!

So the comments on that post were correct to call me on my tone.

What I read in the op-ed was yet another attempt by a McCain supporter to go after Obama's coolness as a sign that he's creepily detached from the real world. To the extent people found this piece positive, I think they're missing what I see as a left-handed compliment or damning with faint praise.

Brooks has written a number of pieces about Obama in this vein. I see it as a very purposeful campaign that displays his lack of objectivity on the subject, but then again, this is a close campaign, so I should watch my mouth as well.