(Public Service Announcement: To all Obama supporters, please remove all sharp objects from your person; and remain seated while reading. To all Obama haters, you’re just gonna LUV this one. Thank you.)
A few choice highlights:
At first it was exciting that Obama was the sort of brainy, cultivated Democrat who would be at home in a “West Wing” episode. But now he acts like he really thinks he’s on “West Wing,” gliding through an imaginary, amber-lit set where his righteous self-regard is bound to be rewarded by the end of the hour. Hey, dude, you’re a politician. Act like one.
In 2008, the message was him. The promise was him. And that’s why 2010 is a referendum on him.
With his coalition and governing majority shattering around him, President Obama will have to summon political skills — starting Wednesday — that he has not yet shown he has.
His arrogance led him to assume: If I build it, they will understand. He can’t get the gratitude he feels he deserves for his achievements if no one knows what he achieved and why those achievements are so vital.
As the president tries to ride the Tea Party tiger, let’s hope for this change: that he puts some audacity in his audacity.
The only thing she didn’t say was “Man up!” In her piece, Dowd unburdens herself with a long, tired litany of alleged character flaws that are allegedly sapping Obama’s audacity. I hardly know where to begin. But no worries. I’m not going to go all Jack Nicholson on you – though I feel the same as Jack when, in The Shining, he said: "Heeere's Johnny!"
Granted, Dowd plays the role of simple provocateur (or to some, court jester). Indeed, per New York magazine, Dowd regards her columns as “political cartoons” meant to shock & awe. Substantive arguments rarely grace her witty prose. She is the polar opposite of, say, Ross Douthat, the conservative thinker on the Times’ editorial staff. When you read Douthat, you best get your PoliSci on. That said, I do (mostly) enjoy Maureen’s work. But these days I don’t read her for anything but entertainment.
The trouble is that from her towering ivory perch at the Times, Dowd has what surfers call a “hugangus” megaphone. For good or ill, her words reverberate worldwide. Today she goes off in a scathing indictment of Obama. She is spectacularly wrong on all counts. Yet, rebutting Dowd on the merits, such as they are, is usually a fool’s errand. It’s hard to garrote smoke. Still, this one time, I’m going to be a Motley Fool and give it try, albeit briefly. Doing so tellingly reveals that the Duchess of Droll has no clothes.
So, let’s unpack Dowd’s principal “arguments” one by one, shall we? (Her allegations are in bold.)
To stay president, Obama must show he can understand our story: Sounds like one of Bill Maher's "New Rules." This is a recurring theme suggesting Obama hasn’t “connected” with regular folk and doesn’t “feel our pain.” To the extent the Obama/White House has not communicated well enough in the face of relentless GOP distortions, I somewhat agree (the picture is more complicated than the one Dowd paints).
Obama has no guts: A recurring theme that is false on its face. See healthcare bill, among many other courageous moves since 2008. What Dowd really means is that Mr. Obama is not fanatically liberal enough.
He didn’t have the guts to endorse Frank Caprio: Frank who? Yeah, I had to Google him, too. (He’s the Dem candidate for the 2010 Rhode Island gubernatorial election.) Goes to the no-guts theme. It’s a throwaway claim that only a Washington insider could love (or would know about).
He was reduced to sparring with Jon Stewart to get young voters back: Baloney. Historically, most voters don’t vote in the midterms. Especially true of young voters. Even more true of first-time voters of any age. Obama’s outreach is simply good macro politics ahead of the midterms.
When Stewart called White House legislation “timid,” Obama got “defensive”: Guess I watched a different Daily Show. Bogus, and goes to the no-guts theme. (And funny she didn’t mention the long standing ovation Obama got when he walked into the studio. Stewart nearly went out for a smoke break.)
“In 2008, the message was him. The promise was him. And that’s why 2010 is a referendum on him”: Pure bull feathers. All politics is still local, especially during the midterms. And Obama actually said, “This election is not about me, it’s about you.” Repeatedly. The media made it about him and his messianic promise (oh, and we’re only 2 years in. The jury is still out on the promise thing).
His coalition and governing majority shattering around him: A ridiculous, unsupported claim. Have you seen the tens of thousands at his recent rallies, all cheering like it was 2008?
He has not yet shown “political skills”: Another ridiculous, unsupported claim. Goes to the lack of empathy theme.
He’s arrogant (“If I build it, they will understand”); he expects hosannas for his achievements: This is a flat-out fabrication and completely unsupported. (Also, I suspect a number of big-time journos, Dowd included, subconsciously resent the fact Obama is frankly more intelligent than they are. Calling someone haughty is a way of salving the wound. Just a hunch.)
He shows an unwillingness to be wrong: Another false, unsupported allegation.
Many voters are so turned off by “Obama’s superior air … they’re rushing into the arms” of inferior pols: A completely whacked interpretation of unfolding events. And she offers no supporting evidence. I’ll grant her a bit of facetiousness here, but a political analyst she ain’t.
He should have done jobs first, not health care: A tired opinion offered without arguments.
He should have been harder on the bailed-out banks: Another tired opinion offered without arguments.
He should have killed DADT by edict: Yet another tired opinion offered without arguments.
He poorly communicated his political messages on healthcare & stimulus; he should have known public “gullibility would trump lofty rationality”: Well, here’s one I basically agree with. Still, she offers no supporting arguments.
Needs to put “some audacity in his audacity“: Simply a gratuitous, concluding line – but it sure writes pretty, donit? Hey, I never said she wasn’t glib. She's the best there is at this stuff.
As should be clear from this little exercise, Dowd is all hat, no cattle. She waxes poetic, but says nothing of value beyond throwing gasoline on the barn fire. None of her assertions – nada – are supported by facts or reasoned arguments. At least one claim is utterly false.
Obviously, Dowd is deeply frustrated with Obama, and it shows. Buying it wholesale in ‘08, I think she thought the president really was “The One.” Her hopes were dashed when she belatedly discovered Obama is not the valiant Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) of The American President after all. She dearly wants Obama to charge into the White House press room to heroically declare, “I was so busy keeping my job I forgot to do my job. Well, that ends right now!” That’s the line handsome Andy Shepherd used to reclaim his presidential cojones. Never mind that political reality requires compromise and, at times, taking unpopular stances for the good of the nation. It’s what non-fictional presidents are paid to do.
The trouble with Dowd’s “you know, scenario” (as Annette Bening so cutely put it in the film), is that President Obama must in effect become an Aaron Sorkin character in order to “act like” the real politician Dowd so desperately pines for. Except, Obama *is* a politician, Maureen. That is why he’s “The One” sitting in the Oval Office against all odds. It is why he’s still “The One” outpolling his opponents despite GOP efforts to take him over the cliff with them.
To mix metaphors, I submit that Dowd herself is the one living in that “amber-lit” West Wing fantasy she so drolly manufactures for Obama. In fact, I suspect she’d agree with me. The prosecution rests.
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Maureen Dowd Trivia: Never married, she’s a former sportswriter who once dated West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. He also wrote the screenplay for The American President, too. Calling Dr. Freud ... (I kid Maureen)
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