As its Hollywood-borrowed headline There Will Be Blood suggests, the gist of Maureen Dowd's column today is that appearances of that icky post-debate clinch notwithstanding, there is no love lost between Hillary and Obama. The junior senator from Illinois won't agree to run as Hillary's vice-presidential candidate. Or as Maureen metaphorically puts it:
Why would Obama want to follow in the frustrated footsteps of Al Gore . . . being third banana to Billary?
Along the way, Dowd appears to break some news of a confrontation between the two that one camp views as having been physical . . .
It's been widely reported that Obama and Hillary had an extended conversation on the tarmac on December 13, 2007, in the wake of Clinton supporter Billy Shaheen's invocation of Obama's youthful drug use. But Dowd, relying on witnesses from the Obama camp, suggests that things got much more heated than previously noted, the Clinton camp feeling that Obama had violated her airspace, so to speak, and he coming away more aware of her vulnerabilities.
Excerpts [emphasis added]:
Then, according to witnesses from the Obama camp, Hillary got very agitated and was “flapping her arms.” All her simmering grievances spilled out during the 10-minute talk. She was still furious about David Geffen’s searing interview with me the previous February, charging that she and Bill lie with such ease “it’s troubling.” While Geffen’s fund-raiser for Obama spurred the column, Obama knew nothing about the interview until it appeared. Hillary was also angry that Obama had called her “disingenuous,” telling Newsweek that it was a contradiction for her to claim that her tenure as first lady gave her more experience but then refuse to release her first lady papers from Bill’s library, saying she had no control over them.
At some point, an Obama intimate recalled, he “gently put his hand on her arm to chill her out.” The tall senator often leans down to put a friendly hand on the shoulder of his fellow senators — male and female — on the Senate floor, and they seem charmed by the gesture.
But Senator Clinton and her circle were not. They had been surprised and troubled by what they saw as his attempt to grab her arm and hold her in place while they talked, an unpleasant flashback to Rick Lazio getting in her space. As Queen Bee of the Clinton hive, Hillary has created a regal force field that can be breached only with permission, so something that wasn’t even a jostle was perceived as a joust.
The encounter seemed to have steeled them both. Hillary, to knock back the upstart who had unexpectedly gotten in her way, and Obama, who came away feeling that, for all of Hillary’s outer strength, she was afraid of him in some ways, and for all of her supposed poise, she had a more spiky temperament than he had realized.
Dowd concludes that their post-debate clinch should have earned Oscars for both candidates. And since we're going Hollywood this morning: if there will be blood between the Democrats, when it comes to the Republican field many conservatives would say this is . . . no country for old men.
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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Love the No Time For Old
February 3, 2008 - 08:24 ET by momodoLove the No Time For Old Men reference. This was another column full of movie quotes and allusions. I spotted Jaws, Seven Days In May and Mean Girls as well.
http://dowdreport.bl...
Dowd Report: All MoDo, All The Time
Also...
February 3, 2008 - 09:56 ET by dervish... Casablanca.
Yup.
February 3, 2008 - 10:59 ET by momodoI covered that one too.
Dowd Report: All MoDo, All The Time
And change just keeps on happening
February 3, 2008 - 08:29 ET by ThisnThatWay to go Dowd. Dowd didn't get sucked into this "space is mine, taking advantage of a poor woman" thing this time. I had suspected the "Lazio" moment would wait until Queen H. was facing the Republicans, where she could garner all the Dim sympathy. INSTEAD, it happens with another Dim. With no effect. This should make the Republicans imune from this effect, wouldn't you think?
Gawd how I love Dowd.
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If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it is in English, thank a Soldier. - My barber
this might be why--Lazio came out early
February 3, 2008 - 10:27 ET by docbRueters is reporting Obama ahead in CA--even in NJ, and NY, and with a 20 point lead in Georgia.
Her personal space is not an issue --she keeps a cadre around her to appear in Charge but we know it is Bill that is getting most votes for her.
I heard someone say the difference in the candidates is :
Clinton: vote for me and I will take care of eveything in the dark! Vote and go away.
OBAMA: Come vote for me and help me in the light of day.
That about sums it up for me.
But what exactly is the
February 3, 2008 - 11:09 ET by MidAmericaBut what exactly is the dimensions of 'hillarys space'? Is it defined as a circle whose radius is equal to the distance she can throw a lamp or ash tray?
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February 3, 2008 - 20:50 ET by dahliatraverslol
Leader of the Free World?
February 3, 2008 - 11:21 ET by okiehawk44Hillary needs a completely positive force field around her for her to feel effective? This is what feminism has wrought? What on earth is this little girl going to do when her "space" is more than invaded by bad people? Is NOW going to protect her like they did with Lazio? Seems to me that Bill more than invaded her personal space with his many affairs. Where was NOW then?
Its' the Environment Stupid!!
February 3, 2008 - 12:56 ET by BayshoremanI think Maureen Dowd unintentionally exposed an algorian environmental faux pas by Billery and Obama when she stated:
“On Dec. 13, the two senators were preparing to board their private planes, parked next to each other at Reagan National Airport, to go back to Iowa for a debate.”
If these environmentally enlightened Man-Made Global Warming stewards are so concerned about the environment and how evil and wasteful we (not them…no, not ever them) all are in our wasteful and greedy use of fossil fuels and its disasterous effects to the environmental, then why are they and their entourages taking TWO separate PRIVATE JETS from the from the same place, going to the same place, AT THE SAME TIME????
I guess I’m just too small-minded to “get” the big picture.
Logic
February 3, 2008 - 16:29 ET by ThisnThatWhy are you trying to inject logic into this discussion, and point out these obvious inconsistancies? :-)
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If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it is in English, thank a Soldier. - My barber
Logic
February 3, 2008 - 23:54 ET by BayshoremanSorry TT...I'm still trying to suppress my natural tendencies for independent thought. I sooo want to become an unquestionable believer in unbelievable logic!!!!
There will be blood
February 3, 2008 - 13:52 ET by Lame CherryOf course Hillary is terrified of Obama...........loosing.
She is going to be filleted in the general election.
1. Sex tapes.
2. Bill's sex tapes.
3. Hillary money fraud.
4. Bill in bed with Muslim dictators selling uranium to nations which want to nuke the United States.
Things are not pretty for Hillary and it is why she is flapping her arms around.
As far as There will be Blood, by Sinclair Lewis, I have strange story about a Jewish kid named Johnny who was an extra in that movie where it was filmed in Texas. He is a rather mental retard but good looking with John McCain personality in picking fights.
Johnny who should be listed in the credits was standing around extraville when the star Daniel Lewis came over and started chatting him up.
Pronto Johnny the extra became Johnny the speaking person in the movie........
Now Johnny got an invite to go back to Hollywood "to do additional shooting", but from what I heard his family would not let this 18 year old kid go onto the Hollywood lifestyle. They were quite tight lipped about it in fact.
The question is why would a kid be given a break like this and then turn it down???? as this is the thing most people try all their lives to get to occur.
I know what I believe it is, but as the movie came up in Hillary and Obama, there is a whole lot more going on in Hillary flapping and young beligerant boys not answering a casting call.
Perhaps Arlen Specter after he gets done with missing NFL tapes can start looking at the homosexual recruitment of young actors onto the Hollywood stage as they seem to be a big voting block for Hillary and Obama.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
I really enjoyed all of
February 3, 2008 - 17:45 ET by bigtimerI really enjoyed all of this read...
I wonder just about now if we replayed the interview Hill had with Katie awhile back saying that it never entered her mind she would lose...
Her self-imposed crown is leaning and about to fall off.
If these two manipulative
February 3, 2008 - 17:49 ET by fitzfongIf these two manipulative episodes (Hillary & Obama, Hillary & Lazio) don't give you a clear picture of the kind of tyrant Hillary would be as President...well, there's no hope for you.
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February 3, 2008 - 20:49 ET by dahliatraversHillary got very agitated and was “flapping her arms"
Oh goody. A potential President of the United States reacts like an agitated chicken when she gets upset.
dahlia
February 3, 2008 - 21:01 ET bylol <chicken dance music>
Supreme Court, National Security, Borders, Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.
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February 3, 2008 - 21:35 ET by dahliatraverslol
Well if the picture ...
February 4, 2008 - 05:56 ET by Jcon96...at the very top of the page is any indicator, she does not look very upset. On the contrary, she looks a bit, uh, intrigued maybe?
Hasn't she learned you only get to play certain cards once? (Personal space being one of them)