Title: Maureen Dowd
Description: That other complete twit
Wayne in WA State - May 24, 2007 03:49 PM (GMT)
I opened up today's Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper and on the editorial page I see a column by Maureen Dowd on Al Gore
:o :mad: :dripple: :bad: :wacko: :o :mad: :dripple: :bad: :wacko:
It demonstrates perfectly why Al Gore needed to write The Assault on Reason . In this editorial she writes about a crucial issue of our times. Er... not exactly. She writes about whether Al has lost enough weight and how slim Obama is. She writes about sighing and rolling your eyes. She is just a complete and utter twit. Does she realize that she writes for The New York Times and not People Magazine or The Weekly World News?
Thanks Maureen for helping make America's editorial pages look like gossip columns. Thanks Maureen for helping put the worst president ever in the White House. It makes me want to pull out the rest of my hair. :mad:
My friends, this time let's write back and let her benefit from some reader feedback!
Texan for Gore - May 24, 2007 06:30 PM (GMT)
Wayne is the Seattle Intelligencer on the web? I'd like to read the article so I will know how to respond - so I can give her a piece of my mind!! :mad:
Reverend Wally - May 24, 2007 06:40 PM (GMT)
The Seattle Post Intelligencer
BUT
I cannot find that article .... !
:(
Wayne in WA State - May 24, 2007 06:40 PM (GMT)
Apparently Dowd is not available online from the P-I because she is syndicated. But she is read in many places. Here is another link.
http://donkeyod.wordpress.com/2007/05/22/pass-the-clam-dip/ Reverend Wally - May 24, 2007 06:56 PM (GMT)
OK .... Here is the whole enchilada
:)
| QUOTE |
Pass the Clam Dip
May 23, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON
It’s no wonder Al Gore is a little touchy about his weight, what with everyone trying to read his fat cells like tea leaves to see if he’s going to run.
He was so determined to make his new book look weighty, in the this-treatise-belongs-on-the-shelf-between-Plato-and-Cato sense, rather than the double-chin-isn’t-quite-gone-yet sense, that he did something practically unheard of for a politician: He didn’t plaster his picture on the front.
“The Assault on Reason” looks more like the Beatles’ White Album than a screed against the tinny Texan who didn’t get as many votes in 2000.
The Goracle does concede a small author’s picture on the inside back flap, a chiseled profile that screams Profile in Courage and that also screams Really Old Picture. Indeed, if you read the small print next to the wallet-sized photo of Thin Gore looking out prophetically into the distance, it says it’s from his White House years.
A subliminal clue to his intentions, perhaps? He must be flattered that many demoralized leading Republicans and Bush insiders think a Gore-Obama ticket would be unbeatable. And he must be gratified that his rival Hillary has never cemented her inevitability, even with Bill Clinton’s lip-licking Web video pushing her.
But though he’s on a book tour clearly timed to build on his Oscar flash and Nobel buzz, and take advantage of the public’s curiosity about whether he’ll jump in the race, he almost seems to want to sigh and roll his eyes when he’s asked about it.
“I’m not a candidate,” he told Diane Sawyer on “Good Morning America.” “This book is not a political book. It’s not a candidate book at all.”
Of course, his protestation was lost given the fact that he was sitting in front of a screen blaring the message “The Race to ’08,” and above a crawl that asked “Will he run for the White House?”
He is so fixed on not seeming like a presidential flirt that he risks coming across as a bit of a righteous tease or a high-minded scold, which is exactly what his book is, a high-minded scolding.
He upbraided Diane about the graphics for his segment, complaining about buzzwords and saying “That’s not what this is about.”
Diane was not so easily put off as he turned up his nose at the horse race and the vast wasteland of TV, and bored in for the big question: “Donna Brazile, your former campaign manager, has said, ‘If he drops 25 to 30 pounds, he’s running.’ Lost any weight?”
Laughing obligingly, he replied: “I think, you know, millions of Americans are in the same struggle I am on that one. But look, listen to your questions. And you know, if the horse race, the cosmetic parts of this — and look, that’s all understandable and natural. But while we’re focused on, you know, Britney and KFed and Anna Nicole Smith and all this stuff, meanwhile, very quietly, our country has been making some very serious mistakes that could be avoided if we the people, including the news media, are involved in a full and vigorous discussion of what our choices are.”
He explained to James Traub of The New York Times Magazine that TV induces a sort of national trance because the brain’s fear center, the amygdala, receives only a fraction of electrical impulses from the neocortex, and couldn’t resist lecturing about the amygdala — “which as I’m sure you know comes from the Latin for ‘almond.’ ”
Mr. Traub said that, as he followed him around, the Goracle was “eating like a maniac: I watched him inhale the clam dip at a reception like a man who doesn’t know when his next meal will be coming.”
So if Al Gore is really unplugged and unleashed and uncensored, as Tipper and his fans say, then he is no longer bound by the opinions of gurus and focus groups. He can be himself, and inhale away and still run if he wants.
Barack Obama is as slender as an adolescent and exercises constantly, but he still sometimes seems strangely tired on the campaign trail. He blamed fatigue when he overstated the death toll of the Kansas tornadoes, saying it was 10,000 when it was 12.
Doug Brinkley, the presidential historian, said that even though the fashion now is for fit candidates, after the Civil War, there was a series of overweight presidents. “It showed you had a zest for life,” he said. The excess baggage may make Bill Clinton and Bill Richardson look roguish, but unfortunately, too many cheeseburgers and ice cream sundaes make Mr. Gore look puffy and waxy. “Maybe,” Mr. Brinkley suggested, “Gore can sit in Tennessee and do it via high-definition satellite — like McKinley, just eat and sit on the porch.”
Published in:
2008 presidential campaign
maureen dowd
al gore
on May 22, 2007 at 9:52 pm
|
Texan for Gore - May 24, 2007 07:18 PM (GMT)
Ughhh!! This just makes me utterly furious!! Ms. Dowd sounds like the playground bully who is intimidated by the smart guy, so must grasp at straws to find something wrong with him!! :mad: What the he** does size have to do with anything? Doesn't intelligence matter anymore?
Thank you both, Wayne & Reverend, for providing the information. I am on my way to give her a few thoughts of my own....
This is exactly the kind of stuff that Gore refers to in his book. Grrr...
AlGoreFan - May 24, 2007 07:20 PM (GMT)
Texan for Gore - May 24, 2007 07:36 PM (GMT)
tinkerer - May 28, 2007 09:22 AM (GMT)
:D :D
I'm sorry, folks, I just can't get alarmed at Dowd's column. She's paid to make some good points in a humorous way, and she succeeds here, as she usually does.
Yes, she makes fun about Gore's weight. Yes, she makes some humorous observations about his doing the same things the other candidates do while still maintaining he's not a candidate.
But take a look at this telling line: "He must be flattered that many demoralized leading Republicans and Bush insiders think a Gore-Obama ticket would be unbeatable. And he must be gratified that his rival Hillary has never cemented her inevitability,...."
If I were to summarize Dowd's comments, I would say this: Al Gore is a very strong candidate whom Republicans greatly fear who is teasing us right now about his supposedly not running, while he does all the things the candidates who are running are doing.
On the whole, Dowd's column is a positive for Gore, not a negative.
0wn - May 28, 2007 10:38 AM (GMT)
tinkerer,
If this were the first time that Dowd pulled this type of thing, then I would agree with you. But let me give you a little history of Maureen Dowd's comments about Al Gore:
Dowd's comments on Gore's 2000 Campaign:
| QUOTE |
| In 1999, Dowd claimed that "Al Gore is so feminized and diversified and ecologically correct, he's practically lactating." (6/16/99) |
Dowd's comments on Gore's 2004 speech on Iraq:
| QUOTE |
| [Sen.] John Kerry's [D-MA] advisers were surprised and annoyed to hear that Mr. Gore hollered so much, he made Howard Dean look like George Pataki. They don't want voters to be reminded of the wackadoo wing of the Democratic Party. |
Dowd's comments on Gore's global warming message:
| QUOTE |
| In a 2001 column, Dowd described Gore as "the champion of Kyoto and author of a chicken-little polemic warning of 'an ecological Kristallnacht' and 'wasteland.'" (8/5/01) |
So, I would say that this type of op-ed is all part of Dowd's ongoing "War on Gore". It's certainly not something that should be taken lightly. We have to stand up to this kind of BS every chance we get.
tinkerer - May 28, 2007 06:34 PM (GMT)
Own:
I appreciate that, but you have to understand that Maureen Dowd writes a column whee she makes her political points within a humorous setting. Nobody is immune, everybody gets it to some extent. The quotes you gave may seem like attacks standing on their own, but she's given it to Bush far worse. Let me quote an article she wrote just BEFORE Bush's inauguration, when he was already messing up by announcing his appointment of Linda Chavez as Secretary of Labor, when it turned out she hired an illegal immigrant as a maid-and tried to pass her off as friend she took in to get herself on her feet.
Many times over the years I have cracked up remembering this article.
| QUOTE |
January 17, 2001
ESSAY
Yes, Yes! To Tara!
By MAUREEN DOWD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
WASHINGTON — Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) Executive Director Jeanne Johnson Phillips today announced that the theme for the 54th Presidential
Inauguration is "The South Rises Again."
"President-elect Bush campaigned on a promise to `unite, rather than divide,' "
said Mrs. Phillips. "But now that he has won, after the bloody but decisive
battles in South Carolina and Florida, Dubya says fiddle-dee-dee, Lincoln was
wrong: Divided we stand, united we fall!
"Why shouldn't Linda Chavez have slaves? Why shouldn't Gale Norton put slavery
in context? Why shouldn't John Ashcroft talk to the journal of neo-confederacy
Southern Partisan and defend slaveowners against the suggestion that they had
"some perverted agenda"? Why shouldn't our new attorney general care more about
the Unfinished Civil War than unnecessary civil rights? Why should Dubya have
denounced the Confederate flag that once flew proudly over the South Carolina
statehouse? Why shouldn't it fly proudly above his White House?
"The inaugural festivities will reflect that the civilization many thought was
gone with the wind, the pretty world of cavaliers and cotton fields, of master
and slave, is no longer a dream remembered but a dream restored. It is time to
set aside the shallow squabbling of the Clinton era about the 1960's and focus
on something that matters: the 1860's. Instead of refighting the Vietnam War,
we need to refight the War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance. This inauguration will
establish that this is not a restoration of Big Daddy's administration, but a
restoration of Jefferson Davis's."
Herewith the inaugural events to celebrate our first Compassionate Confederate
President, our unreconstructed deconstructionist of Reconstruction:
Thursday, Jan. 18
The Opening Celebration, traditionally held at the Lincoln Memorial, has been
moved immediately south to the home of our mythic leader, Robert E. Lee, in
Arlington, Va., overlooking the Potomac.
Strom Thurmond, the Oldest Living Confederate Widower, will be the master of
ceremonies, introducing Ricky Martin, who will wiggle in tight Rebel-flag pants
and sing "La Vida Dixie." The irrepressible Strom will banter with Ricky about
the contention of Southern Partisan that Negroes and Latins "have no
temperament for democracy." As a gag, Strom will playfully check Ricky's teeth
before he performs.
Fireworks will recreate the glorious bombardment of Fort Sumter.
Friday, Jan. 19
Mississippi State Society Salute to John Ashcroft:
Trent "Bless my chitlins and corn my pone" Lott hosts a Twelve Oaks barbecue
with a charming minstrel show, just as we had at our Philadelphia convention.
(Closed to the press and no-account Yankees.)
States' Rights Old South Cotillion:
Jeb (Stuart) Bush will re-enact the cavalry stampede over voting rights in
Florida. Instead of the Tarleton twins, our beguiling Daughters of the
Confederacy, the Bush twins, Jenna and Barbara, will appear in hoop skirts,
accompanied by George P. in a dashing Southern Guardsman uniform, chaperoned by
Katherine Harris, the Steel Magnolia. No one will want to secede from this
costume ball until the last mint julep is downed and the last waltz is danced.
Saturday, Jan. 20
Swearing-In and Parade:
As our new President and First Lady take a carriage ride down Pennsylvania
Avenue, Gen. Colin Powell and an Army brigade dressed in their fetching new
gray uniforms will re-enact Pickett's charge by charging any pickets.
Inaugural Balls:
Meat Loaf and Marie Osmond join the Gatlin Brothers in a medley of "Sweet Home
Alabama," "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," "Mississippi Queen" and "The Night
They Drove Old Dixie Down."
Don't forget the shopping at BullRun.com, where you can buy such historic
mementoes as inaugural lawn jockeys; inaugural license plates with the
Confederate motto "Deo Vindice" ("With God as Our Defender"); "Recount
Appomattox" T-shirts; busts of John Ashcroft's favorite Southern patriots,
Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis; "I'll never be hungry
again" beer coolers; limited edition Louis Vuitton carpetbags, and "Tomorrow Is
Another Day" watches. |
Wayne in WA State - May 28, 2007 06:40 PM (GMT)
Thanks Own
As Dowd columns go, this was hardly as bad as it gets. It made me upset because of Maureen Dowd's history of smearing and lying about Al Gore. She may think her pieces are humorous. I don't.
Seventh-graders backstabbing their classmates have more dignity than Maureen Dowd. Gore writes about how our media is focused on trivial matters and she responds with an editorial about Gore's weight. Doesn't she realize she's just mocking herself now? :dripple:
Reverend Wally - May 28, 2007 06:50 PM (GMT)
To Wayne and tinkerer:
Some fools will never get it. LOL
One of the things learned as a minister is that you can only give the facts. It is up to a person's intellect whether or not they can intelligently interpret them.
In other words:
You can lead a horse to water .... but you can't make him drink!
But then again .... this is all about opinions and views.
I prefer to look at the facts.
Gore is the most intelligent person we have as a potential contender at this time.
All else is BS and Dowd has proven she is an overpaid moron playing "commentator" like little girls play house.
tinkerer - May 28, 2007 06:55 PM (GMT)
Wayne and Rev:
If you read her article on Bush just above Wayne's last post, I think you will see how easy Gore gets off.
My major point is just that Dowd's statement, "He [Gore] must be flattered that many demoralized leading Republicans and Bush insiders think a Gore-Obama ticket would be unbeatable", far outweighs, if you will, any barbs she throws about Al's physical girth. And please note that nowhere does she hint that she considers this state of affairs a bad thing at all-the fact the Republicans are afraid of Gore.
For many years, the Republicans have thrown their weight around like they are the tough guys, both in politics and in government generally. Too often, Democratic supporters have come to expect that the Republicans will find some way to beat them.
2006 changed all that. Now the Democrats are coming off a win, not least because Gore, through his global warming campaign and other reasons, has come to represent thoughtful leadership as opposed to what we have now.
To have Gore about to enter the race with major columnists writing that the formerly big, bad GOP is actually afraid of him fills my hard with gladness and hope. It beats the hell out of reading that Rove and Repubs have pulled it off again.
I think you should lay off Dowd, at least for this article. She's giving you a gift, and I don't think you realize it.
Reverend Wally - May 28, 2007 07:00 PM (GMT)
tinkerer
I have to agree with the "gift" statement.
She has managed, via her writing skills (?) to prove Al correct in his assessment about the media
Wayne in WA State - May 28, 2007 07:21 PM (GMT)
Tinkerer :good:
Not to take issue with you, but I remember Dowd from the 2000 campaign and have made myself read a lot of her material since then. Now, after the 2006 mid-terms, she may have turned her snark-ray on George W Bush. But when Bush was campaigning she was to me the prime example of the media 'War on Gore'.
Here's a couple links:
http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2005/11/dowd...ng-of-gore.htmlhttp://mediamatters.org/items/200703010001 tinkerer - May 28, 2007 07:25 PM (GMT)
Rev:
To each, their own.
If, in your opinion, Dowd's jokes about Gore's beltline overbalance her comment about the Republicans being afraid of him, so be it.
For me, the Democrats are heading into this race with every reason to be confident, and Gore is riding a personal wave of popularity as he seemingly is about to enter the race. Dowd's remarks about the Republicans' fear of Gore added to that confidence. For that, I applaud her article.
tinkerer - May 28, 2007 07:46 PM (GMT)
Wayne:
I posted the above comment before I got to read your last post.
With the two links you gave, I now understand your attitude about Dowd. I didn't really pay attention to her during the 2000 race, only since that time, and that was when I became a fan. In fact, that Confederacy column was the first time I had ever paid attention to Dowd. I must admit it had me in stitches. However, I now see why you feel the way you do, because I did not how how Dowd wrote before the election. I didn't pay attention to her then.
I am enraged at what happened to Gore about the internet. Gore really did introduce legislation to transform it from a little known network linking a few researchers into a huge network capable of connecting all universities and research institutes, and setting the stage for further expansion.
I will keep what those links pointed out in mind. However, I still feel that this particular column by Dowd helps Gore much more than it hurt him. If you want to take Dowd to task for her performance in 2000, by all means do so. If Bush's tenure has shocked her back into political reality and she acts on it, I'll take it for now.
Nagasakee - May 29, 2007 03:35 PM (GMT)
Tinkerer, I don't know you, but I agree with all that you have written and expressed so well. Maureen Dowd is no "moron" at all, in fact she is one of the most erudite, pithy and knowledgeable commentators out there. I also think Gore got off pretty easy and the comments she made were pretty funny. (I laughed, remembering the "lactating" one...priceless)
Look, Al is going to be attacked and brutalized no matter what. We know this. The Assault on Reason (I am about 225 pages into it's terrific 300 pages) clearly shows that this is both an expected and correct presidential test, expected by none other than Gore himself! He bemoans the triviality of it at times, but says the press SHOULD attack candidates and make them respond to them to test their mettle.
I am reminded of the phrase "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen".
I don't WANT the press to be on Al's "side". I want them to do their frigging job...criticize the candidates and see who wilts under pressure. I mean honestly...if we Gore people expect kid glove treatment and whine about a mere Maureen Dowd comment (and trust me, she is more a Gore fan than a Gore enemy) how the hell do we expect Al to show his intestinal fortitude in the campaign (and how do we expect him to show his toughness and suitability to be President to the non Gore believers when they consider the challenges facing the 20-08 president vis-a-vis Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Mexico and immigration and hard choices on Global Warming)
Anyway Tinkerer, I agree with what you said and think you have absolutely the right response to Dowd's column.[I][/I][I]
Wayne in WA State - May 29, 2007 04:03 PM (GMT)
I don't want to drag this issue to death. If you like Maureen Dowd, fine. I think I have a pretty good sense of humor but I have never found any of her columns funny. Maybe that's just me...
Nagasakee :good: I absolutely want a press that will criticize and challenge everyone in the public sphere, including Al Gore. My issue with Maureen Dowd is that she and so many other journalists allowed the lies of then Governor George W. Bush go unchallenged while attacking Al Gore for trivial things or things that were not so. In the case of Maureen Dowd I believe she was one who literally made up lies about Gore that were later repeated by many others ( for example that the book 'Love Story' was about Al and Tipper).
I don't like or respect Maureen Dowd and I make no apologies about it. That's about all I have to say. :spikey:
NastyDiaper - May 29, 2007 04:40 PM (GMT)
The Rude Pundit was on the case from the start.
I'm not gonna link because. Um. The Rude Pundit is bathroom-stall grafitti rude, not baby-burp rude.
If you dare, :coolwink: google ("Rude Pundit" Gore Dowd).