Today marks the one-week anniversary of the Great David Brooks Confusing Satire Incident of 2012, in which conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks penned what was either a scathing criticism of Mitt Romney, or a scathing criticism of the way other people criticize Mitt Romney — nobody was entirely sure which. Brooks later clarified to Buzzfeed that the piece was "originally intended as a parody of the media storyline." But  outside the Charlotte Convention Center this afternoon, he offered a different and somewhat more complex explanation.

"I was two-thirds mocking the people who mock Mitt Romney, one-third mocking Romney," he told me. "Mostly just trying to be amusing." Whatever he was trying to do, however, reactions to his column broke down on "completely partisan lines," he said.

"Democrats loved it, Republicans hated it. The lesson is never tell jokes about politics."