Debate Leaves Dowd in Dumps

Change font size:  A |  A

Barack Obama's desultory debate performance has left Maureen Dowd in the dumps.  Her weekend column is a laundry list of Sunday-morning quarterbacking.  Dowd's biggest beef is Obama's failure to have goaded McCain into a damaging display of ill-temper.  Just for fun, let's meander through Maureen's musings.

The president . . . is so insecure that he could only choose a vice president he knew would never hold his title.

The MSM portrayed Bush 41 as lacking in self-confidence by taking, in Dan Quayle, a VP who wouldn't overshadow him.  Now Dowd depicts Bush 43 as insecure for taking a strong Veep. Damned if you do, etc. 

[Pres. Bush is] so insecure that he needs proof of presidency emblazoned everywhere, even riding a Trek bike with the presidential seal affixed.

As presidents go, Pres. Bush seems less enthralled with the trappings of his office than most of his predecessors.  But if Bush is bad for having an emblazoned bike, what does Maureen have to say about Obama, who didn't wait to be prez to have his own seal and his own airplane seat emblazoned "President"?

Sitting at a table in the White House with the two men who want his job [was Bush's] bête noire.

What is Dowd's evidence for this?  What sense does it make?  It's not as if Pres. Bush is running for re-election. 

When McCain sneered, “I don’t need any on-the-job training, I’m ready to go at it right now,” Obama didn’t directly respond, but veered off into a story about his father being from Kenya and how he got his name.

Much worse than Obama's naming explanation was his suggestion that kids around the world no longer look up to America.

On the surge, he could have said that McCain was the arsonist who wanted to be praised for the great job he’s doing putting out the fire he started.

Yeah, always good to analogize your opponent to a potentially homicidal felon. And if McCain's an arsonist, wouldn't that make Obama the guy who wants to yank the firemen just as they're getting the flames under control?

Obama did a poor job of getting under McCain’s skin. Or maybe McCain did an exceptional job of not letting Obama get under his skin. McCain nattered about earmarks and Obama ran out of gas.

Can't dispute Dowd on that!