A leading conservative intellectual thoughtfully critiques Obama, but he's drowned out by the talker's egregious, laughable straw men.

In the widely discussed clip above, President Obama makes the case for raising tax rates a few percentage points on Americans making more than $250,000 per year by arguing that successful people in this country didn't get there on their own. They benefited from the provision of public goods, though some of them deny it. "If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help," he said. "There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business--you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."

What fascinates me are two reactions to the speech, both from conservatives. Juxtaposing them sheds some light on today's conservative movement and the unacknowledged fissures within it. The thoughtful critique comes from Yuval Levin, whose arguments are always worth taking seriously. He quotes the president a bit more broadly, including his line that " You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart."