"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,” Brooks says, “and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president.”

He divined a president from a pant crease. I can't believe he said that. I can't believe he thought that and then thought well enough of it that he orally reported it. It is a parody. There is a tweeness to these guys, Friedman, Edward Mendelson and Gabriel whatever-his-name-was also come to mind, that is fingernails-on-blackboard insufferable. It brings out violent ideation in me. Gabriel heard that first-hand from Brooks. He duly noted it without irony or parody. If somebody had said that with a straight-face to me...there would have been a scene; if not great bodily harm at least a 78 F-bomb tirade to top Xi Jinping's.