"We live in a country in which many people live in information cocoons
in which they only talk to members of their own party and read blogs of
their own sect."

David Brooks's column on the two image of Barack Obama was very good. He writes that the left and the right have constructed their own two-dimensional cartoons of the president and neither conforms to reality. The right describes him as big-government liberal who uses slimy Chicago-style methods to rule. The left describes him as an intellectual too willing to compromise and dither.

Neither image is correct, says Brooks. "The fact is, Obama is as he always has been, a center-left pragmatic reformer."

Brooks praises the president for his achievements, including in education. 

Take education. Obama has taken on a Democratic constituency, the
teachers’ unions, with a courage not seen since George W. Bush took on
the anti-immigration forces in his own party. In a remarkable speech on
March 1, he went straight at the guardians of the status quo by calling
for the removal of failing teachers in failing schools. Obama has been
the most determined education reformer in the modern presidency.

Brooks was enamored with Obama since the early days of his campaign. It's good to see the love hasn't died. It's also good to read critiques of the information cocoons that we live in.