Is Maureen Dowd usually this much of a jerk? "Oval Newlywed Game"

[Jennicut]

What a dumb article


"The etiquette breach was not widely noticed, swallowed by the cacophony over the economy.

But Joe Biden no doubt felt the sting when Barack Obama dissed him again in public.

The new president is so elegant, and so full of comity, even to his foes, that when he is simply a tad ungracious, it jumps out.

At his news conference last Monday, Mr. Obama was asked by Fox’s Major Garrett about the vice president’s startling assertion that even if he and the president do “everything right,” “there’s still a 30 percent chance we’re going to get it wrong.”

Admittedly, it must be an adjustment for the president, a detached observer who “travels light,” as friends put it, to be yoked to such a garrulous social animal.

It can’t be easy for someone with a highly defined superego to be bound to the wacky Biden id, for one so disciplined to be tied to one so undisciplined, for a man so coolly unsentimental to be paired with someone so exuberantly sentimental".http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/opinion/15dowd.html

Another part:
"The president had already used his “disappointed parent” routine with Mr. Biden in public, looking reproachful and tapping Joe on the back when he made a benign joke, as he swore in White House staffers, about his memory not being as good as Chief Justice John Roberts’s. Chastened, he called Justice Roberts afterward to apologize.

After the election, when Mr. Obama made a mild joke about Nancy Reagan and séances, Mr. Biden, who was on stage as well, did not wince at his partner in public or tap him like a strict nun."

Gawd, she makes Obama sound like an unemotional robot and Biden like a mentally handicapped idiot. She really just writes crap and makes it up, huh? I have always heard bad stuff about this supposedly "Democrat" but she sucks. No hearts for her today.

[Hissyspit]

1. Coraline!

In 3-D.

Hope you stayed until the very end of the credits.

And yes Maureen Dowd is pretty worthless.

[Jennicut]

5. No! What happened? Tell me please! My daughter is 4 and loved this movie and so did I.

I love the cat.

[Hissyspit]

9. There was a real cool effect with the mice at the very end.

Lots of fun in the credits, too.

[Jennicut]

11. Oh, the mice...they were so cute.

The problem with taking preschoolers to movies is that they really need to use the bathroom by the end of the movie! No staying for credits for us but we will probably go and see it again. Its all Morgan (my daughter) talks about. She wants a Coraline doll and there are some online.

[Hissyspit]

14. How did she react to the "scary" elements?

[Jennicut]

15. Like a pro. This kid loves The Nightmare Before Christmas

She was Sally for Halloween. She begged me to be Sally and I had to get an adult Sally costume and refit for a 4 year old. Loves The Corpse Bride as well. She is a strange kid in that she is not afraid of these types of movies but it really fuels her creativity and imagination. She was once afraid of the eyes on Thomas the Train when she was 2 so go figure. I would not recommend Coraline for just any 4 or 5 year old. A brave one that knows its just a movie would handle it fine.

[Hissyspit]

16. What a great kid! I was thinking I would have been disturbd by a few scenes when I was a kid

but would have loved it. I was thinking 6 and above for most kids.

Did you notice the movie looked like a CGI film but everything on the screen was material and physical. The cherry blossoms in the final scene were pink painted popcorn.

[Jennicut]

28. 6 and up would be my recommendation.

Morgan saw the preview and told me in no uncertain terms I was to take her to the movie! Her teachers say she is "precocious", I don't know if that is good or bad. Since we had seen TNBC before and this is the same director we knew what to expect. However, for most little ones it might be too scary if all they watch is Dora the Explorer. She got that the witch was bad but she told me it was just a movie. She did take her 3-D glasses off at one point though, more because they were a bit big and uncomfortable.
The film was so amazing visually. I want to see it again to really take it all in.

[BrklynLiberal]

She is almost always a real stupid twit.

[firedupdem]

2. Trying to sow division where there is none. n/t

[Muttocracy]

12. The media wishes the primaries would never stop. nt

[Muttocracy]

3. well, she was a big player in the media pounce on Biden in 1988, so, not much has changed. nt

[Jennicut]

6. Really? Screw her then. That whole 88 episode was the media going after someone unfairly.

[Muttocracy]

10. having read her whole column now, how ABSURD for her to be worried about someone attacking Biden!!

[FrenchieCat]

4. She probably has her own issues.....

from what I can sense.

[JeffR]

8. I've thought that for a long time

She's a facile writer - in both the positive and negative senses of the word - but she's not an astute observer. She's a caricaturist, and a rather bad one.

[MrModerate]

7. Yes. n/t

[angee_is_mad]

13. Yep

Obama, really odes something to her. It's like an unrequited schoolgirl crush. She can't get him, so she attacks him.

[MarjorieG]

18. Same with Kerry, gratuitous, wrong, and pot shots never end.

[elleng]

22. And Wes Clark.

SORRY to be reminded!

[elleng]

17. YES she is!

Some (good friends of mine) admire her; I still can't figure out why. She spends a lot of time on foolish things, and is often so snarky that I just can't stand to read.

[ginnyinWI]

21. she disses all male politicians

which for me, makes her lose all credibility. It was fun when it was Bush. But Dems are also in her sites--Edwards, Kerry, Bill, you name the guy and she has a way to try to take them down.

[Jennicut]

29. Yes, I noticed this. She hates all the guys.

There are good men out there, maybe she is jealous of Michelle, Jill, and Theresa!

[cwydro]

39. She went after Hillary pretty bad too.

It ain't just the guys.

I used to love Dowd, but she jumped the shark during the Chimp's reign.

[ginnyinWI]

47. yes she did take off on Hillary too--I remember that.

What is her purpose?? Seems like she's just there to stir up the pot--like a more liberal Ann Coulter.

[nevergiveup]

19. She didn't get invited

on Air Force One back to Chicago. She is pissed.

[rvablue]

41. Yep, I predicted this here yesterday. And it will only continue until her petty ego gets stroked.

[BlooInBloo]

20. Yes.

This has been another episode of Simple Answers To Simple Questions.


And here's a good summary of exactly what kind of critter MoDo is:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/8/13/10433/1626

Understanding MoDo

by BooMan
Wed Aug 13th, 2008 at 10:04:55 AM EST
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.

EDIT: Added excerpt.

[Clio the Leo]

23. Was she the one who.....

..... made the big stink about Barack "claiming to be better than Lincoln" in that Time essay he wrote .... remember that story from "Audacity"?

[sandnsea]

24. Among so many who shouldn't be read

It is befuddling. I mean at least Nooner makes a point somewhere along the line. Dowd is just a poo fest and nothing more.

[TheWraith]

25. Being a jerk is practically MoDo's entire personality.

She exists to try and shred any public figure that gets within her line of sight. Sometimes one can agree with her, but it never makes her an ally, just an equal opportunity piranha.

[Thrill]

26. The media continues to call that idiot a 'liberal columnist'

Call me when she does something besides bash Democrats

[Samantha]

27. Mo is all wet on this

Obama knew very well Biden's good points and one small bad point when he choose him to be his running mate. I don't think Biden has said or done anything that has surprised Obama. I also think that Obama made an astute choice in Biden, not only for his intelligence and his experience, but for his willingness to speak out candidly when necessary while Obama continues his Cool-Hand-Luke posture, as he prefers. They both absolutely could not have been cut from the same cloth and worked as well as they do as a team.

Mo needs to open her eyes to this and get off this kick. Biden is an incredible asset for Obama, and Obama knows it.

Sam

[alsame]

38. I agree with you completely. And maybe it's just me, but during

the press conference, when President Obama laughed and said "not surprisingly", I interpreted that as him saying he was not going to share details about private conversations between him and the VP. I was really surprised when the media began talking about this as a diss of the VP.

[Samantha]

44. Talking heads have very little to argue about now, so they just

make stuff up. Anything to start a controversy and justify their (the commentators) existence will do. I am turning it off these days. I am too upset over the plight of the American people to worry about fake issues such as that stunt the Tennessee legislators are pulling to get their names in the paper and as*holes on Meet the Press asking when Biden will be replaced.

Sam

[alsame]

45. Once again,

I totally agree. :thumbsup:

[gauguin57]

30. It's official. MoDo hates everyone.

No matter how brilliant, no matter how capable, no matter how popular, no matter how much good they have the potential to do for this country ... she hates them all.

[JamesA1102]

31. Her column is like reading a spoiled teenagers slam book.

All snark and no substance.

[Metric System]

32. I don't read her columns. She's always taking swipes at Dems.

[eShirl]

33. her picture is in the dictionary next to "catty" (n/t)

[ErinBerin84]

34. yes

As others have pointed out, she has admitted that she would much rather write about shallow things than the economy. Plus, trying to start a conflict with Biden and Obama? I'm sure Biden and Obama could say some great things about Mo Do off the record, hehe.

[dsc]

35. when she was busy savaging Hillary during the primaries many of us tried to warn you she would

do this. The woman is a mess. This is what happens when we sacrifice our principles upon the alter of hearing things we like. Idiots like her get free passes.

[Skidmore]

43. Hillary wasn't special.

Maureen Dowd savages everyone. She's like the catty girl from the right side of town in high school who needs to tear everyone else down to reassure herself that she's all that. Nothing new. Or original, for that matter.

[Jakes Progress]

46. Yeah, but back then

there were many here who thought she was brilliant. We warned that she was a jealous little mind, but they liked who she was bashing then. She hasn't changed. Maybe we can.

[Paulaguyon]

58. You are wrong. The NY Times public editor called Dowd on her Obsession with Hillary

It is simply not true that Dowd criticizes everyone. She may criticize Republicans once in a blue moon in order to create the impression that she's a liberal, but can you tell me one Republican with whom Dowd has been obsessed with before?

Clark Hoyt, the NYTimes public editor, scolded Dowd so, last year:

But the relentless nature of her gender-laden assault on Clinton — in 28 of 44 columns since Jan. 1 — left many readers with the strong feeling that an impermissible line had been crossed, even though, as Dowd noted, she is a columnist who is paid not to be objective.

He concluded:

Even she, I think, by assailing Clinton in gender-heavy terms in column after column, went over the top this election season.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/opinion/22pubed.html?pagewanted=print

[mitchum]

36. Dorothy Pucker

[Reader Rabbit]

37. Yep. But if she wasn't a jerk, she'd have no personality at all. - n/t

[lunatica]

40. She is a prime example of wit gone brittle and mean

I stopped reading her years ago. She's an equal opportunity skewer which in the end is basically about writing about herself because that's what she keeps bringing attention to.

[EFerrari]

42. I heard part of a talk on the book "Snark" and Dowd was used to show

how it was destroying public discourse. Add shallow and cynical to brittle and mean.

[Radical Activist]

48. And did you hear what Chrissy said about Amanda during lunch hour?!?!?!

Oh mai gawd!!!! I'll loan you my Jane Austen book after school, Maurie! *giggle*

[marshall]

49. Yeah, she's always been a tart tongued shrew

For the last eight years she slung shit at W, but nobody cared since he really had no defenders. Before that she dragged out the Clintons' dirty laundry. You can bet she'll be skewering the Obamas now. It's not about politics to her, it's about being "witty". She's a Dorothy Parker wannabe.

[Jack Rabbit]

50. Yes, Maureen Dowd is usually an awful jerk

She doesn't care who the president is. She hates him.

[Mass]

51. Yes! I guess you do not read her that often.

Of course, once in a while, she gets it right and people forget how much of a jerk she is, but it is her, an attention seeker that needs to criticize and ridicule any Democratic man that is important: she has done it to Gore, Dean, Kerry, Clinton, ... and of course Obama, her latest target.

[demokatgurrl]

52. Maureen Dowd is an overrated gossip columnist who

somehow made her way to the Editorial section. She's a vindictive, petty, nasty bitch.
Just sayin.

[DeepBlueC]

53. gossip columnist...that nails it

[mzteris]

54. yeah, she is. n/t

[Cha]

55. I bet Obama and

Biden are having a good laugh if they have time to be informed of said article.

[spooky3]

56. Glenn Greenwald and Mediamatters.org have called her out.

She's awful.

[kenziemom06]

57. It's actually very sad...

...because I bet when she was writing about W she had some support among Dems. But she started to wreck all that goodwill when she savaged Hillary during the primaries, and now this meme of hers about creating drama where there is none -- it's pathetic.