Maureen Dowd Hits Obama: That Didn't Take Long!

by Edmund Jenks | February 5, 2009 at 08:56 am

412 views | 34 Recommendations | 13 comments

The honeymoon appears to be drawing to a quick end for Barack Obama.

Most of us expected him to bask in the glow of media adoration for quite some time, but after the implosion of Tom Daschle, some in the press seem to have decided that it's time to put down the pompoms, at least, temporarily.

With cabinet picks dropping like flies -- and new mini-scandals popping up every day -- it appears they have finally hit a tipping point. They love Barack, but not as much as they love a good storyline (and their own credibility) -- so some are beginning to turn on him.

She even went so far as to note that Obama was reading to elementary school kids as the Daschle story broke, comparing it to Bush's reading of "The Pet Goat" on 9/11. "Even as he told the children his favorite superheroes were Batman and Spider-Man," she wrote, "his own dream of being the superhero who swoops in to swiftly save America was going SPLAT!"

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Karen Hatter

at 10:36 on February 5th, 2009

Maureen Dowd's assessment, re: what she characterizes as ....

" .... his (President Obama's) own dream of being the superhero who swoops in to swiftly save America was going SPLAT!"

.... is nonsense.

All of the talk and characterizations regarding his possible divinity and 'super human' powers were used, by his detractors, as he sought the presidency.

Talk of being a super hero, as I recall, was only uttered as a joke, by the future president, when he appeared, with Senator John McCain, at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner in October 2008 in New York, referring to himself as the son of Jor-El, Superman's father.

During the campaign, then candidate Senator Barack Obama stated and displayed at his website this quote:

"I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington .... I'm asking you to believe in yours."

Pythiian1

at 18:56 on February 5th, 2009

Maureen Dowd is a gifted writer, but she doesn't represent the sentiments of the entire Fifth Column establishment. She was pretty snarky toward presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama during his run, when she coind the term "Obambi" and other terms.

Along the way, Ms. Dowd developed a case of a schoolgirl crush on Mr. Obama, which as most people knew, was inherently based on unrealistic expectations, whatever they were. Her latest snarky piece merely reflects her own disappointments of whatever she expected from President Obama as he started his governing process.

A few Cabinet nominees' withdrawals hardly constituted a crisis, as previous Presidents have had numerous cabinet nominees' withdrawals for one reason or another. Nor is it the case of "cabinet picks are fallen like flies."

nyctuber

at 09:56 on February 5th, 2009

So, he nominated a few people who had tax problems. Meanwhile he's taken important steps to reverse the damage Bush created. Couldn't care less what 'Maureen Dowd' thinks.

jhazell (not verified)

at 10:02 on February 5th, 2009

My four year old daughter has more patience than you guys. Bush screwed up a whole planet in two long sessions of his leadership. Stop painting Obama with any brush, you know nothing and we have to give him time to show his strengths and weaknesses. Grow up and just be thankful we have a chance for change. He has the right people behind him, the big four or three are cut at the knees begging, he needs time to make good choices and this is as the entire world is clamoring for him to do this and do that. PATIENCE.

Amy Judd

at 09:10 on February 5th, 2009

A bit harsh for her to say that I think - give him a chance.

Roy C

at 09:34 on February 5th, 2009

Well, we already see that that the calm attitude, the grace under pressure that made him look presidential as John McCain ran back to Washington to get over-involved in the first TARP bill, may actually be a well-disguised fear of getting confrontational.

Was he afraid to rein in Ms Pelosi? Why is he off reading books to kids when he needs to work the phones and be there in person? Can't Michelle handle the book thing without him?

What are the real parameters of a stimulus package? How did we come up with those numbers? What is the risk of inflation from such a high level of deficit spending?

How could Daschle even be nominated? How did he expect that one to fly? Isn't that narcissism to think that his choices, in violation of everything he had said about lobbying and being clean for his admin, would be kosher? And, then, to have two more people, his Sec of Treasury and another, a woman, all have similar problems of not having paid taxes? What???

The honeymoon is over if Dowd thinks it is. She is a bellweather icon of what the media on the left thinks.

Rachel Nixon

at 09:35 on February 5th, 2009

It's true the sheen is coming off the Obama administration somewhat - but I do wonder whether people's expectations were too high. He was treated a bit like a demi-God around the inauguration.

Edmund Jenks

at 19:41 on February 5th, 2009

One should qualify the statement - as previous Presidents have had numerous cabinet nominees' withdrawals for one reason or another - with "Democrat Party" Presidents.

Actually, this start is worse than Clinton's start in '92 in terms of who, what, and why!

frankieteardrop

at 09:42 on February 5th, 2009

I've said for a long, long time now that Obama would get his ass handed to him badly when it came to playing politics. You can 'choose not to' play that game, but the game continues regardless of his willing participation in it. That's why starry-eyed idealists are better as opposition, conscience type roles, but not so much as the commander in chief.

More entertainment to come I'm sure.

jhazell (not verified)

at 10:37 on February 5th, 2009

Cheers Karen Hatter, amen to that.. we all have to do our bit, the President Obama will do his, but we need to be in there, hands dirty too

Merovan (not verified)

at 10:51 on February 5th, 2009

All these country clubbers don't know it yet but the asteroid has already struck, they are going to be extinct financially very shortly. You cannot go on forever throwing parties and going on vacation, one day you actually have to go to work. This country is never ever going to be what it was the last 8 years. Those days are over. You can still eat at McDonalds, you can still order a pizza to be delivered but your SUV's, NASCAR tickets, and Gucci handbags have been destroyed by mother nature. Thank-you President Obama.

jhazell

at 11:22 on February 5th, 2009

what???

Amabo (not verified)

at 12:17 on February 5th, 2009

it is wishful thinking that the great orator Obama could realize his expressions that touched so many.

Obama took the Castro lead (without the oppression) and deflected his 'celebrity' to YOU. Whereas Castro always said the Cuban Revolution was about the good doctor Che Guevera, Obama said in no uncertain terms many times on the campaign trail that the election was not about him, but about 'all of YOU'.

As in Web2.0, once the vector or attention bends toward what was an audience, they get drawn into the narrative. Citizen Journalism grows with the same 'myth'. As the audience is drawn in, Obama, or Hussein Obama, or Barack Hussein Obama's name is not important, because he is not the issue, YOU are.

The only way forward in the current chance for change is that YOU do it. Burn your drivers license, study and update your skills, turn off the TV and refuse cheap news of road accidents and other journalism dumbing-down story lines. And most importantly come to realize that the 'star system' is over. We are a network, which is what Indra for example expresses about the connected celestial bodies. Looking to the star system for that secure feeling is only the illusion that the CN Towers of this world feed. TV towers are globes and they radiate equally in fixed time in all directions ones way one person messages, which like the dredge journalists now unemployed in the global news business are dragging over into Citizen Journalism with silly bagatelle tear-jerking stories that are og droplets in a far more serious network problem on Mothership Earth.

Actually it is Citizen Journalism, when ridded of the throw-back news junkies of mass media past, that will de-center and activate Obama for what he can contribute, great speeches. Bruce Springsteen also gave a great eulogy folk rap for him that also brought tears to my eyes. Obama choices of staff are simply awful it must be said, from Cief of Staff who sat on the mortgage regulator board watching it be skimmed, and got paid for that, and his other choices, for the most part as well concerning political appointees. His pland of bailing out banks is a trillionaire's ruin, trading trash for cash, and simulating in a postmodern way the solution of throwing cash at the problem like Midas drivng in reverse. his economic plan to rebuilt the past fossil fuel dependent infrastructure is a quaint and most dangerous plan, just about all his real economicplans, apart from the cameo mention of wind and tidal and solar power, and his blanket mention of education but not education substance, will only buy time, perhaps 10 months until the whole US realizes they have not only gone financially and morally bankrupt but also they have muddled their chance at turning things around.

Don't think car. Don't think consumer. Think repair the planet, reject dumbing down news which one finds far too much of here as well, and challenged YOUrself with real skill to take opportunity of a chance for change in urbanism, work-living, and mind-body problems, boredom versus consumer pacifying, boredom versus thinking, drawing, reading and collaborating, forget stars and quick fixes and once we respect the Earth we shall respect hope and charity. Don't think war, reject Israeli, Zimbabwen and Sudan tyranny as well, and that too will instill belief that people free are not terror-lusting., and that oppressors are always the real terrorists. hink peace and rejct those bent on vengence.

The financial crisis is actually such moral bankruptcy. I don't mean cheating on your husband morality, or smoking weed, but the kind that mass murder in Gaza and mass consumption at supermalls feeds. Like all addicts, of war, drugs or shopping for identity, it's an endless unfulfilled activity, and tranquilized by stupid news on TV and in Citizen Journalism sites when one reads about trivial sensational road kill stories and such crap. Citizen Journalism will lead when it understands what it is, reaches an age of reason, that rejects the unemployed global mass media junkies and hires translocal open source news writers and reporters that gives way naturally into voting not only with an 'X' but with the whole alphabet. They is up to YOU.