David Brooks makes some good points in this New York Times column, but his closing statement — that events “have pushed Barack Obama off to the left” and now it’s time “to rebalance” — is bizarrely out of step with reality.

Nothing has pushed President Obama “off to the left.” Just the reverse, in fact. Obama has used events to push the country to the left, at least policy-wise.

Consider that the White House has used the current economic turmoil as justification for nearly all of its sweeping liberal policies — the stimulus bill, cash for clunkers, even a health-care overhaul, to name a few. Obama did not have to be “pushed” into these initiatives. He was eager to go there.

Rahm Emanuel let the cat out of the bag on that one earlier this year: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”