I still run into old friends occasionally that not only think Maureen Dowd is a good columnist but that she is a liberal and uses her column to advocate for the Left. Without fail, these friends are busy people that have not spent the Bush years reading alternative media and blogs. They’re somewhat like Democrats that were trapped in amber sometime in 2000-2001, just before the rise of the Blogosphere. They have puzzled about why Dowd spent the last three months of the 2000 campaign writing about how horrible Al Gore was as a candidate, but then they remember those zingers she put down on Dick ‘Big Time’ Cheney and his geographically-impaired sidekick. Ooh…that felt sooo good.
This is a message to my old friends trapped in amber. Maureen Dowd doesn’t root for Democrats. She uses her column to mock Democrats, drive wedges between Democrats, and to reinforce negative stereotypes about Democrats. Yes, she is somewhat irreverent and she does her share of blasting Republicans. Occasionally, when her righteous ire is up, she can really let the Republicans have it. But you can start a count now. It’s August 13th. Dowd does two columns a week. If she doesn’t take any time off, she’ll write thirty-three more columns between now and the election. I guarantee you that the majority of them will not be helpful to the cause of Barack Obama. Today’s column is about as unhelpful as it gets.
While the column is ostensibly about the Clintons’ ‘solipsistic’ behavior, the real motivating force is to light a match to the raw feelings that have carried forward in the Obama and Clinton camps from the primary. Barack Obama granted both Bill and Hillary Clinton speaking spots at the convention. In Maureen Dowd’s mind this is a big mistake.
While Obama was spending three hours watching “The Dark Knight” five time zones away, and going to a fund-raiser featuring “Aloha attire” and Hawaiian pupus, Hillary was busy planning her convention.
You can almost hear her mind whirring: She’s amazed at how easy it was to snatch Denver away from the Obama saps. Like taking candy from a baby, except Beanpole Guy doesn’t eat candy. In just a couple of weeks, Bill and Hill were able to drag No Drama Obama into a swamp of Clinton drama.
Now they’ve made Barry’s convention all about them — their dissatisfaction and revisionism and barely disguised desire to see him fail. Whatever insincere words of support the Clintons muster, their primal scream gets louder: He can’t win! He can’t close the deal! We told you so!
In the Beltway world of Maureen Dowd and Cokie Roberts, ‘Aloha attire’ and ‘Hawaiian pupus’ are signs of haughty elitism. And a speaking slot for the former president and the primary’s runner-up is some kind of foolish capitulation. Somehow, someway, the Clintons will ruin the convention and destroy Barack Obama’s chances to be president.
Hillary’s orchestrating a play within the play in Denver. Just as Hamlet used the device to show that his stepfather murdered his father, Hillary will try to show the Democrats they chose the wrong savior.
Although, according to Dowd, there is no need for Hillary to make such an attempt since the Democrats already feel that way.
The Clintons know that a lot of Democrats are muttering that their solipsistic behavior is “disgusting.” But they’re too filled with delicious schadenfreude at the wave of buyer’s remorse that has swept the Democratic Party; many Democrats are questioning whether Obama is fighting back hard enough against McCain, and many are wondering, given his inability to open up a lead in a country fed up with Republicans, if race will be an insurmountable factor.
I get the feeling that Maureen Dowd has been talking to Cokie Roberts and is under the misapprehension that Cokie is a Democrat. But Dowd continues on in this vein, slyly inserting false data points like ‘failure to open up a lead’.
Ed note: Obama’s current Electoral College lead: 284-154, with 100 too close to call.
Dowd even goes so far as to suggest that the Clinton camp leaked emails and memos to The Atlantic to make Obama look bad. Any objective observer would judge the emails and memos were leaked to spread around the blame for Clinton’s loss.
Dowd thinks that the Clintons’ petulance will dominate the convention. For example:
Wednesday will be all Bill. The networks will rerun his churlish comments from Africa about Obama’s readiness to lead and his South Carolina meltdowns. TV will have more interest in a volcanic ex-president than a genteel veep choice.
What do you think the chances are, really, that Bill Clinton will say something petulant during his speech that upstages the Vice-Presidential pick’s speech? The Clintons were overrated as strategists but they aren’t so stupid as to think they’ll gain points by sowing division and rawly displaying their bitterness. They may not be able to avoid an unhealthy focus on themselves but their legacy is in enough danger as it is. Being seen as responsible for an Obama loss is not in their interests. Any sabotage they might do will be by way of benign neglect. For example, Hillary may allow her name to enter into the nomination. She may not openly discourage some of her supporters from parading around with anti-Obama signs. Or maybe not. Maybe she will be a loyal soldier. The only thing that is certain is that Maureen Dowd is counting on some drama. And anyone that actually thinks this election matters and wants Obama to win is not rooting for drama at the convention.
Remember, she has 33 columns between now and the election. Let’s see how many of them she devotes to attacking John McCain.
It’s MoDo The Red, bro. It’s what she does. What does she think would generate more drama, letting Bill and Hillary speak or NOT letting them speak?
Can you imagine the field day the Village Idiots would have if Obama told Hillary “you’re not welcome to speak at my convention?” Would that somehow magically generate LESS drama?
This is a stupid point to argue even for Red.
MoDo is about MoDo, first and foremost.
I did however listen to an interview with an HRC operative this week that greatly disturbed me.
Lots of talk about how certain people in the party gamed the election to give it to Obama… “we can’t prove it, but certain people have said…”
“He should have a bigger lead…”
“This is the sort of situation the super delegates were created for…”
“Its symbolically important to put her name in nomination…”
That sort of crap.
So MoDo may have a point. I know they won’t do anything overt, the the Clinton Mafia foot soldiers will be making whispers it seems.
as i pointed out a week or so ago, my interpretation of these types of stories is that there are elements within Team Clinton that know that they are at grave risk of un- and underemployment if they cannot secure their man (Evan Bayh) as the veep pick. And these threats are leverage to influence Obama’s choice. Once the pick is made, however it is made, these threats will probably go silent.
Atrios, Booman and Somerby read MoDo so the rest of us don’t have to.
Seriously, which “many Democrats” has MoDo been talking to:
Democrats have wondered many things about Obama throughout the Primary season; but those haven’t been top concerns in months. Seeing Obama adeptly parry most attacks from opponents during the primaries and subsequently, has allayed those fears for most Democrats. What we’re really worried about now are things like his FISA vote. Only die-hard Clinton insiders are still clinging to that old narrative.
You want us to read 33 MoDo columns over the next couple of months? I’d rather read the new Swift Boat book on Obama while listening to Sean Hannity on the radio. I’ll rely on you, Boo, to do the dirty work.
Dunno but from my pirch, Obama looks to be losing ground…on the moderate right, left and center. People are fast losing enthusiasm for the Obama candidacy. He’s gonna end up giving victory to McCain allowing himself to be defined by others.
The same groups that took Kerry down is hard at work..defining Obama as:
A spineless caver. He allows himself to be cowered; having surrounding himself with – same old, same old despised gang, composed of: Zbig, Holbrooke, Albright, Rubin/Furman et al. Ain’t no change here.
on domestic policy – FISA, flag pin, offshore drilling,
on foreign policy – he’s war mongering – hugging Israel, Afghanistan, now Georgia.
Obama is seen as the other side of the McCain wooden nickel. He has joined the Anglo-American Israel Neo-con Oil league, as the fifth cheerleader.
we are screwed.
We’re looking at the bankruptcy of American ideas and fiscal policies…doing the same as in previous years expecting different results.
WTFU.
I believe that Obama’s polls are holding pretty solid. Plus, he is starting to run response ads.
I do believe that he needs his own version of Carville and Staphanopolis, and the response cycle should be 4 hours, not 4 days.
We cannot have another debacle like the Swift Boat Shitheads.
She needs to (attempt to) rile things up to make it seem that her writing has any value to the publications that carry it. It’s not as if she can fall back on measured and careful analysis of things politic, she doesn’t do measured and careful analysis.
Somerby pinned MoDo as a cleaned up Coulter, and I think that is exactly right.
frequently, repeatedly, vociferously.
He reined her in once. He can do it again.
She is a useless tool, no question. It’s the gender-bending bullshit which gets my goat. She is such a misogynist that I cannot believe it at time. Or to resurrect a term from junior high, she is the ultimate cock teaser, ball-busting nutcutter.
Yeah, I read this drivel this morning, and I swear, I wouldn’t line our kitty litter with it. She does have some talent, but she’d rather piss it away by being a cheap hack. She wants to secure her place at the reindeer games she pretends to deride.
They need to create Drama! badly. Who’d pay attention otherwise, right? And the most reliable storyline out there is to play up perceived Dem divisions needlessly.
Now, do I believe they exist? Well, of course they do. But funny how the even deeper divisions of the repub party aren’t highlighted. I guess that won’t make good copy. It would be a nice change if these types tried.
Yes, I’ve lost all respect for the Clintons, and there’s nothing they can do to earn it back. But dammit, Bill was our last Democratic president; of course he’s going to speak. Same with Hillary. She’s “just” a senator the same way Teddy Kennedy is “just” a senator. I don’t advise throwing caution to the wind and not being prepared for what could happen, but it is appropriate for them to have speaking roles. And on a personal level, I do not have to listen if I don’t want to–it’s called being an adult. It’s not that deep.
I swear, Democratic infighting–real, imagined or overblown–must really sell well. And it’s the gift that keeps giving…to MoDo.
I hope you plan on setting up a MoDo count diary somewhere so we can keep track.
i don’t trust the Clintons at all, but i also don’t trust MoDo.
she uses a supposed attack on the Clintons to take GOP swipes at Obama…”buyer’s remorse” and shit like that…
while Obama’s numbers are not spectacular (he doesn’t have the election locked by August 10?) this is the normal, pre-convention downtime.
McCain is out campaigning in the hustings, Obama is on vacation.and yet he is still ahead. i will expect better after the convention, but its too early to be bothered by adequate poll numbers.