WP Marjorie Williams shares same concerns many of have re Dr. Dean...

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43185-2003Dec30.html

The Doctor Factor

By Marjorie Williams

Finally, let's turn to what newspapers delicately title "the temperament question." Dean's been called arrogant, angry, condescending, prickly. He has gotten this far by playing his chesty irritability as a sign of honesty and integrity.

But I have enough brusque, irritable doctors in my life without sending one to the White House.

I have the same concern about Dean. Why should Democrats choose to stand around all spring and summer holding their breath against the moment when Dean says something arrogant or impolitic? (Think Southern guys with Confederate flag decals on their pickup trucks.) We're the ones who are supposed to be allowed to go on with our temperamental little lives, while our major-party nominees are the poor chumps who have agreed to adhere to the rigid, Ken-doll theater of politics.

And so I bring to my assessment of this year's Democratic candidates one requirement that never crossed my mind before. First, do no harm.
_________________________________

"Don't just send them a message. Send them a President." - John Kerry
 

[Jim Sagle]

1. Whadda buncha shit.

[flpoljunkie]

3. There's an insightful analysis. De rigueur for too many in the Dean camp.

[Rose Siding]

4. Well what were you looking for?

"omg, I hate Doctors too!" That is what the "insightful analysis" in the posted article is based upon.

[pasadenaboy]

8. look you can be opposed to Dean

but this is a horrible article. Is this really what you want the press to be reporting on.This is the same kinda "gore invented the internet" "he wears earthtones" kinda crap we need to get rid of.

Regardless of what you think about Dean, this is the narcicistic self absorbed media at its worse and to complement is absolutely inexcusable.

[bearfartinthewoods]

18. i noticed the other day, that i'm starting to do that

whenever i hear a report about 'dean on the campaign trail' i realized i've started to hold my breath to see if they are talking about an old gaff or a brand new one.

we are soooo screwed..

[mouse7]

25. read #24 n/t

[babzilla]

32. is it the "chesty irritability" that is bothering you?

a little vics vap-o-rub should fix that right up.

Finally, let's turn to what newspapers delicately title "the temperament question." Dean's been called arrogant, angry, condescending, prickly.

Funny, I have never seen the delicate title, only the angry ropy head popping vein characterizations.

He has gotten this far by playing his chesty irritability as a sign of honesty and integrity.

I just can't get over that she went with the phrase "chesty irritability" WTF kind of medications do her doctors have her on anyway? She certainly was in a high dudgeon while typing this out off of her own irritable chesty.

Whenever "they" are reporting about an old gaffe or a new gaffe or the new and improved gaffe, it is curiously similiar to what "they" were talking about in 2000.

Here is one example of what poor Marjorie had to say about Gore:

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h063000_1.shtml
The Daily update (6/30/00)

The lives of normal people: The press corps' hopeless intellectual standards are a constant source of amazement. So too the press corps' condescension. Williams' condescension today is overpowering. Again, she addresses Gore:

WILLIAMS: This is what you're used to, being "put" here and "sent" there, like a suitcase; you gave up years ago trying to string the hours of your days together into anything like the coherent days that normal people take for granted.

We're told that, unlike normal people, Gore is willing to be "put" and "sent" places. You know—a lot like a suitcase. Of course, normal people don't make up quotes, but the words "put" and "sent" appear in quotes for no apparent reason; Williams doesn't cite any text where Gore actually uses those words. Williams' condescension powers on as she describes the world of this abnormal person:

WILLIAMS: These are just the facts of life: the arbitrary distinctions (you can call from this phone but not that phone); the thinly veiled quid pro quos (you can offer a cup of coffee in the Oval Office to someone who knows he will later be asked for $50,000, as long as you don't explicitly connect them); the surprises, pleasant and un-. Cognitive dissonance is such a familiar state of mind that you don't even notice it any more.

Williams knows all, tells all.

Again, we're going to be frank: This work is an insult to democracy. It is because of our great human limitations—limitations that scream from every part of this work—that "normal people" long ago passed strictures about examining and judging other people's character. It's a problem for democracy that an addled class lays about writing nonsense like this.

Normal people don't "examine" other people like this. We wonder if Williams knows any.

<snip/>

Seems to me that poor Marjorie and her ilk are the screwed ones. We are only screwed if we let them get away with it again. Are we going to let that kind of screwing stand, or are we going to call it for what it is: screwiness.

Screw Marjorie is what I say. I say Marjorie and her type are the ones that are sooooo screwed.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

33. Screw Marjorie?

Or get a spoon? Hmmmm...

[KoKo]

2. I'm sorry Ms. Williams has had problems with Physicians in her life, but

that's no excuse to put her personal problems with the medical profession into an article to smear a candidate just because she doesn't trust doctors.

Perhaps she trusts the son of a former President whose Father and Friends corrupted a national election and took a country into war based on lies, better?

[mouse7]

24. Editors allow those with admitted biases to write editorials?

"...Well, let's just say that mine is a grudge tenderly nurtured over two and a half years of illness, encompassing roughly 32 doctors in six hospitals, plus scores of the medical students, fellows, interns and residents in whom we can see the doctor in larval form...."

The only positive I will state here is that at least the grudge she has is admitted to. That said, what the hell is are the editors of the Washington Post doing giving column inches to those who have stated grudges against an entire profession. An irrational hated of all doctors is no more reasonable than an irrational hatred of all the people in a racial group. One is no more or no less overly bigoted than the other.

Are there bad doctors? Of course. Look at Bill Frist. However, there's a lot more good ones than bad. For every Bill Frist there a doctor who name isn't known who is working 20 hour days in Uganda for Doctors Without Borders. I detest people who make blanket statements about entire groups of people.

[babzilla]

31. perhaps she would be more useful

writing an editorial about why someone with her poor writing skills is getting the fabulous insurance package which allows her to meet with roughly 32 doctors in 2 1/2 years, and why that situation should leave her begrudged.

We all have our burdens I suppose.

My tenderly nurtured grudge comes from the fact that I have not been insured to meet with 1 doctor in the last 2 1/2 years, that is one of the "Doctor Factors" that have lead me to support Dean.

[lurk_no_more]

5. HUH?

GS: "On NAFTA, you used to be a very strong supporter of NAFTA."

HD: "George, you're doing it again. I supported NAFTA and wrote a letter to President Clinton in 1992 supporting NAFTA. That's different than 'you used to be a very strong supporter of NAFTA.' "

GS: "You were a strong supporter of NAFTA."

HD: "I supported NAFTA. Where do you get this 'I'm a strong supporter of NAFTA'? I didn't do anything about it. I didn't vote on it. I didn't march down the street demanding NAFTA. I simply wrote a letter supporting NAFTA."

********************

This is an art-form! This much spin could make you physically ill. It has me.



” JAFO”

[babzilla]

6. thats our Marjorie

just doing what she does best.
Her advice to herself: first, do some harm.

for more of Marjorie's shenanigans start here:

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h033000_1.shtml

Synopsis: Marjorie Williams helped us see that the hopefuls are hopeless on character.


Does Al Gore have a heart?
Marjorie Williams, Salon, 3/7/00

Mea-Not-Really-Culpa
Marjorie Williams, The Washington Post, 3/17/00

Too Peevish to Be President?
Marjorie Williams, The Washington Post, 1/7/00

The Chosen One
Marjorie Williams, Vanity Fair, 2/98

[cosmicdot]

9. you beat me to it : )

[cosmicdot]

7. a pundit scrambling for novel complaints

"If you don't have anything nice to say, you're perfect for the modern press corps."

"Her work is full of reports of 'impressions.' She tells how things 'could be' and 'seem,' and also how things 'tend to' strike her."

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h033000_1.shtml

"McGovernesque defeat" ... she must have gotten a bonus for using that term

[babzilla]

10. actually her complaints aren't very novel.

same old shit but with an extra dose of hyperbole for good measure.

Here are my favorite parts of the article.


As it happens, I've spent almost two decades observing politicians, whom on balance I quite like, and more recent years observing doctors, who . . . . Well, let's just say that mine is a grudge tenderly nurtured over two and a half years of illness, encompassing roughly 32 doctors in six hospitals, plus scores of the medical students, fellows, interns and residents in whom we can see the doctor in larval form.

gee Marjorie, maybe you should add a head doctor into your rotation, sounds like a personal problem.


(A disclaimer: Naturally, all the doctors who are presently treating and advising me are paragons of sagacity and compassion, nothing at all like the men and women I am so broadly lampooning. You know who you are.)

interesting that all of Marjorie's current doctors aren't burdened with her tenderly nurtured grudge, not yet anyway, check back next week.

The odd thing is that most of Dean's unacknowledged shifts in position are of the kind any other half-good politician, with some vaporous wording, could explain away in his sleep. But even when Dean makes what is clearly a blunder, it takes him days to make the apology that a rival campaign would instinctively produce before the next news cycle.

Here she bemoans the fact that Dean doesn't "use vaporous wording" like all "half-good politicians" to apologize to the pundits for not going along with the scripted formula which is clearly blunderous, according to the WAPO pundits. But, but, a rival campaign would capitulate to our vehement squawking within hours.

Damn you Dean and your bullheaded truth-telling ways, you won't get far in this town saying what you really think if Marjorie and her ilk have anything to do with it.

[worldgonekrazy]

19. I think Marjorie is not very smart

The odd thing is that most of Dean's unacknowledged shifts in position are of the kind any other half-good politician, with some vaporous wording, could explain away in his sleep. But even when Dean makes what is clearly a blunder, it takes him days to make the apology that a rival campaign would instinctively produce before the next news cycle.

Yeah, that is one way of doing it Marjorie. But what if you let the press run with it for a few days (thereby increasing your name recognition) and then issue the retraction, which gets you ANOTHER spot in the news cycle. At this point in the process I am of the "no press is bad press" mind.

[polpilot]

23. Has she looked at Dean's #'s. She imagines she has advice for Dean??

Dean '04...

[mouse7]

26. Lots of whines, very few facts.

She's not a journalist. More like a failed public relations writer that think she should be part of the story.

[Scott Lee]

11. What a surprise. Another "he's angry" limp diatribe.

Hrm...what's for dinner?

[w4rma]

12. Prejudiced against medical doctors? Anti-intelectualism, maybe? (n/t)

[babzilla]

13. anti-intellectualism perhaps

or maybe just a poor understanding of the science of medicine.

A doctor who has told you one thing at Appointment A might propose an entirely different course of action at Meeting B. Fair enough -- except for the pretense that nothing has changed. It is the very rare doctor who will say, "I've changed my mind," or, "Sorry, I was wrong when I said X at our last meeting." Usually, what he said last time has simply become . . . inoperative

Gee Marjorie, it is really sad that your doctors don't go out of their way to explain to you that if a prescribed treatment isn't working they will try something else.

Something has changed between meeting A & B Marjorie, the treatment wasn't working, that is when a doctor tries something else.

That is what science and medicine are about Marjorie, you did have an 8th grade science class didn't you?

A treatment does become inoperative once the patient does not respond to it as intended. Would you rather have the doctor stick with his first idea, for consistencies sake, or can you deal with an entirely different course of action when your body doesn't respond to the first course action?

[zulchzulu]

14. Somewhat funny article; sounds like she's had some bad doctor experiences

It's like some women I've talked to about Dean that say he reminds them of their first husband. :freak:

[babzilla]

15. that is something to think about

Is that where that clever "dated Dean, married Kerry" slogan came from in the Kerry camp?

That seems to be working well for him.:freak:

[stickdog]

37. Meanwhile, John Kerry reminds them of their first bisexual three way. (nt)

[dsc]

16. I find it hard to take seriously people who say this

But I have enough brusque, irritable doctors in my life without sending one to the White House.

Replace doctors with something like Jews, blacks etc and this would be howled out of town.

[babzilla]

20. the rest of that paragraph is even more revealing

My most memorable brushes have been with an eminent surgeon whose method is to stride into the examining room two hours late, pat your hand, pronounce your certain death if he can't perform an operation on you, and then snap at your husband to stop taking notes, he can't possibly follow the complexity of the doctor's thinking. Dr. X swats away questions like flies. He spends five precious minutes swearing at the wall-mounted phone, which decades of surgical experience have not equipped him to operate, and then finally pronounces that he can't perform the surgery. "Unless you want me to. But there's a 50-50 chance I would kill you."

Why is it, I ask my husband on the way home, that I'm the one who's sick, but they're the ones who are allowed to have the big, operatic personalities?

Poor Marjorie, her personality seems to be just as big & operatic as the eminent Dr. X.

Poor Marjorie's editors at the WAPO don't seem to have any problem with big & operatic editorials as evidenced by the fact that this silly vent is fit for publication.

And just what does this oh so personal and projection-laden article have to do with Dean?
Nothing.
It is all about poor Marjorie's revelation that she is uneasy about doctors.

What is one of Marjorie's major sticking points when it comes to doctors you ask? Of course it is because they have the gall to make you:

wear one of those demoralizing gowns with all the confusing snaps, and if you're sick you have more important things to do during your tiny portions of face time than bicker with your doctor.

The nerve of those doctors, making you put on a demoralizing and confusing gown, just so they will have access to examine your body that you have brought to them for the purpose of examining.

They should at least make a gown with less confusing snaps for the easily confused and easily demoralized types such as poor Marjorie.

Somehow, I have never been confused by the snaps on an examination gown.

Then again I have never felt demoralized by my doctor asking me to get undressed for an examination.

Poor Marjorie.


Marjorie at long last has gotten to the bottom of her uneasiness via a miraculous revelation, she is healed I tell ya.

At long last, the revelation I've been waiting for: the reason why -- beyond the prospect of epic, McGovernesque defeat -- I feel so uneasy about Howard Dean.

The man is a doctor.

Well if that isn't enough reason to vote against him, I don't know what is.

[imhotep]

17. Kerry isnt angry

he is going to lose because of it.

[Rulergirl]

21. for another anecdotal evidence, my father is a doctor and likes Dean

and over 294 doctors endorsed Dean in NH just a couple of weeks ago....so it looks like doctors are evil.....:sarcasm:

[babzilla]

22. welcom to DU Rulergirl

maybe someday Marjorie will be healed of what ails her.
Somehow I doubt that she will be.
What would she have left to write about if she were?

[Rulergirl]

29. maybe about her therapy dealing with her doctor-phobia.......

;-)

[WiseMen]

27. Concerns? Who has concerns? No problem here. Whistle, Whistle ...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

28. "Concerns? Who has concerns? No problem here. Whistle, Whistle ..."

You're joking right?

Please say you're joking.

[babzilla]

34. these are the worrisome concerns

that poor Marjorie is concerned with, I must say the breath holding thing does make me worried for her, but I know lots of 2 year olds that have lived through it. Maybe her doctor can prescribe something for her anxiety.

I have the same concern about Dean. Why should Democrats choose to stand around all spring and summer holding their breath against the moment when Dean says something arrogant or impolitic? (Think Southern guys with Confederate flag decals on their pickup trucks.) We're the ones who are supposed to be allowed to go on with our temperamental little lives, while our major-party nominees are the poor chumps who have agreed to adhere to the rigid, Ken-doll theater of politics.

poor chumps.

[eileen_d]

30. This was a pathetic excuse for a column

I don't give a crap one way or another whether Dean was a doctor. It doesn't make him a bad candidate, but please don't argue that it makes him a better one either.

[John_H]

35. So what if Williams is always pro-dem! Give us Tweety and Fineman!

They may have won MWO's whore of the Year awards, but they like Dean, Hate Clark. They have nooooooooooooooooo alterior motives. They are honest men. They are not disloyal DLC shills like Marjorie Williams and James Carville.

[stickdog]

36. Only pink tutus need apply! (nt)