It's Time for Obama to Embrace 'Weak and Feckless'

President Obama and Democrats are getting all kinds of advice on what their next move should be, and David Brooks thinks it's clearly time to adopt a "Weak and Feckless Approach." The title is facetious, but Brooks says the sentiment behind it is sound: Heed the public, scale back reform, work with Republicans, and don't try to "concentrate immense new powers in a Washington the country detests." It's far better than descending into arrogance and demagoguery.

"I support the Weak and Feckless Approach," Brooks writes in the New York Times. "Trust is based on mutual respect and reciprocity. If, at this moment of rage and cynicism, the ruling class goes even further and snubs popular opinion, then that will set off an ugly, destructive, and yet fully justified popular rebellion. Trust in government will be irrevocably broken. It will decimate policy-making for a generation." (More President Obama stories.)