Dowd looking for ways to ridicule Obama now

Eric Alterman shows how Maureen Dowd and other national pundits are developing the character portraits of the Democratic candidates – the ones that will be the accepted descriptions and references that all reporters who aspire to work for the New York Times must allude to in their stories. The ones that Leno and Letterman will play off of every night. Of course, we’ve seen the phony Edwards storyline -- because he has a big house and gets an expensive haircut, he’s a hypocrite for advocating for the poor. The implication, of course, is that, since it is extremely difficult without public funding of campaigns for anyone other than a wealthy person to run for President, only the rich people deserve representation. Alternatively, they go for the “Breck Girl” feminization of Edwards, mirroring the way the hidden persuaders, the subliminal techniques that are difficult to challenge, that were used to diminish the stature of Gore and Kerry by questioning their masculinity.

Clinton, of course, is cold and calculating because she runs a well-disciplined campaign. Now, apparently, Dowd is toying with a new angle for Obama: he’s high and mighty, thinks he’s better than the rest of us, because he’s so smart. In a similar vein, he’s “trying to look thoughtful” because, well, I suppose because he thinks it’s important to think through issues carefully. Trying to be thoughtful, in the Dowd “Mean Girls” world, means trying to look thoughtful. (Alterman cites the Shannon Doherty character in the movie, “Heathers.”) Of course, in the case of Obama, Dowd must struggle extra hard to find something that, no way, no how, can be called racist.

We better figure out a way to undercut these idiots who are dominating the political coverage in the national media – to immunize as many people as possible against these insidious techniques that brought us the administration of George Bush. Exposure is the first order of business. For starters, everyone leaning Democrat should be made to understand the history of how Maureen Dowd – and others (Chris Matthews, Margaret Carlson, Katharine Seely [Times], Ceci Connelly [Washington Post] whom Bob Somerby has carefully identified in his Daily Howler journal – did, in fact, bring us the Bush administration. They will do it again if they can get away with it.