'He thought a little thing like winning would stop her? Oh, Bambi.'
At the earliest possible opportunity I intend to improve on this.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Maureen Dowd
The quality of writing in the New York Times tends to be over-rated - usually by the New York Times - but there are exceptions. Maureen Dowd is one. Her latest column on Obama versus the Hillary Monster has one of the all-time great intros:
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Dowd does write very well, but I wonder whether she doesn't get distracted sometimes by writing too well, by which I mean I wonder whether she sometimes doesn't get distracted by her own cleverness to the detriment of judgment. So Yglesias's point about Dowd making fun of Obama's breakfast habits I thought was a fair one. While it made for an entertaining column that reinforced the 'elitist' narrative being spun around Obama, shouldn't she have been questioning that narrative, especially as she has been accused of reinforcing the absurd narrative that allowed Bush to sink Gore in 2000.
ReplyDeleteYglesias himself I think is brilliant (and has been on exceptional form today [see here]). I think Frank Rich writes well, while consistently combining it with top-drawer analysis.
Its hardly as if the writing here is dull or anything, and without getting caught up in its own cleverness.
Oh boy, will the Republicans make hay with that comment. But you have to wonder how in the hell did the the Democrats forget all. The Labour party is going through the self same process, where two or ten different factions are deflecting focus from the real goal. Christ, anyone entering politics should have The Gallic Wars rammed down their gullets, where the example of the Celts could be absorbed. Still, it might be a tad too much, expecting that a book can be read for other than it was written. When they would not go in the same direction were they paired like hounds.
ReplyDeleteyours etc'
Vince
'Many of Obama’s donors and fans have hardened against the Clintons, saying it would be disillusioning to see them on a ticket that’s supposed to be about fresh politics.
ReplyDelete“It would be,” said one influential Democrat, “like finding out there’s no tooth fairy.”'
One doesn't have to be a follower of Dawkins to quail. This morning Tim Garton Ash says Obama would be 'Europe's dream'. I'm afraid this does not bode well!