Did Maureen really mean to call Hillary "feral"? As in: "a domestic animal that has returned to the wild and lives without human attention"? Is there something about Hillary that brought to Dowd's mind the famed razorback from the senator's erstwhile state of Arkansas? In any case, we'll take Maureen at her word. In Where’s His Right Hook? this morning, Dowd describes Barack Obama as being "bullied" by "the feral Hillary." Yikes.
Dowd reports on a recent interview with Obama, to whom she variously refers as "Obambi" and "Barry," and lets us know she found herself, sitting across from him, feeling like the "nun [in the "Bells of St. Mary"] who teaches a schoolboy who’s being bullied how to box." So Obama brings out the protective nun in Dowd. I don't recall a woman ever mentioning that she felt like a nun in Bill Clinton's presence.
Dowd clearly has her doubts as to whether Obama has the requisite toughness as either candidate or leader:
- "I’m just not certain, having watched the fresh-faced senator shy away from fighting with the feral Hillary over her Hollywood turf, that he understands that a campaign is inherently a conflict."
- "If Hillary is in touch with her masculine side, Barry is in touch with his feminine side."
- "He turned up his nose at his campaign’s sharp response to Hillary and her pinstriped thug, Howard Wolfson."
- "Do you worry that you might be putting yourself on a pedestal too much? Because people also want to see you mix it up a little. That’s how they judge how you’d be with Putin."
Along the way, Dowd also refers to Hillary as "Godzilla stomping on Obambi." I don't doubt that if Clinton emerges as the Dem candidate, Dowd would ultimately support her against the Republican nominee. But in the meantime, there's clearly no love lost between the columnist and the "feral" bully.
UPDATE 03-04: Seems that "feral" is a favorite Dowd term, one she once used to describe Hillary's critics. In her 2003 review of Hillary's memoirs, Living History, Dowd wrote: "Her remarkable mother, deserted as a child, instilled in her the chutzpah that would allow her to triumph over feral assaults from the right."
Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net
