NYT MoDo on Obama: "Stalking, Sniffing, Swooning"

[chimpymustgo]

(I think she smells a winner... )

Stalking, Sniffing, Swooning

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: July 27, 2008
LONDON

It could have been a French movie.

Passing acquaintances collide in a moment of transcendent passion. They look at each other shyly and touch tenderly during their Paris cinq à sept, exchange some existential thoughts under exquisite chandeliers, and — tant pis — go their separate ways.

Sarko, back to Carla Bruni. Obama, forward to Gordon Brown. A Man and a Man. All it needed was a lush score and Claude Lelouch.

-snip-

After 200,000 people thronged to see Obama at the Victory Column in Berlin, christening him “Redeemer” and “Savior,” it turned out Sarko was also Obamarized, as the Germans were calling the mesmerizing effect.

“You must want a cigarette after that,” I teased the candidate after the amorous joint press conference, as he flew from Paris to London for the finale of his grand tour.

“I think we could work well together,” he said of Sarko, smiling broadly.

-snip-

How does he like the McCain camp mocking him as “The One”?

“Even if you start believing your own hype, which I rarely do, things’ll turn on you pretty quick anyway,” he said. “I have a fairly steady temperament that has at times been interpreted as, ‘Oh, he’s sort of too cool.’ But it’s not real.”

Obama kept his cool through a week where he was treated as a cross between the Dalai Lama and Johnny Depp.

A private prayer he left in the holy Western Wall in Jerusalem was snatched out by a student at a Jewish seminary and published in a local newspaper. In Berlin, the tabloid Bild sent an attractive blonde reporter to stalk Obama at the Ritz-Carlton gym as he exercised with his body man, Reggie Love. She then wrote a tell-all, enthusing, “I’m getting hot, and not from the workout,” and concluding, “What a man.”

-snip-




http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/opinion/27dowd.html?ref=opinion

[mopinko]

1. what a man is right. funny

i talked to my daughter, age 32, yesterday. we have had many conversations about barack. after all, he is our senator. but the main topic was just this- wow, he looked so hot.
i swear. we got us a winner. the only way mc same can "win" is with massive fraud. and i mean massive.

[Guava Jelly]

2. Must be his size 13 1/2 shoes

“I’m getting hot, and not from the workout,” and concluding, “What a man.” :evilgrin:

[JackORoses]

17. poor McAnus wears Women's Sizes

such a small man in so many ways...

[Faygo Kid]

3. Maureen is just weird.

She's unreadable.

Fortunately, the Times has Frank Rich on Sunday. He's the best.

[Enrique]

8. unreadable is right

I gave up trying to find a coherent point in any of her columns.

[SteveM]

14. I think Maureen is hot for Obama, and like McCain, pissed about it (nt)

[babylonsister]

4. Dowd Wanks on Schedule

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/7/27/05438/5754

Dowd Wanks on Schedule

by BooMan
Sun Jul 27th, 2008 at 12:54:38 AM EST


At this point the only reason that I'm not exasperated that Maureen Dowd continues to get her drivel published in the New York Times is because I just don't care that much anymore. I honestly don't know whether she realizes how trivializing her coverage is or how badly she abuses her privilege. She actually had the opportunity to interview Obama on his way from Paris to London, and this is what she asked:

In Berlin, the tabloid Bild sent an attractive blonde reporter to stalk Obama at the Ritz-Carlton gym as he exercised with his body man, Reggie Love. She then wrote a tell-all, enthusing, “I’m getting hot, and not from the workout,” and concluding, “What a man.”

Obama marveled: “I’m just realizing what I’ve got to become accustomed to. The fact that I was played like that at the gym. Do you remember ‘The Color of Money’ with Paul Newman? And Forest Whitaker is sort of sitting there, acting like he doesn’t know how to play pool. And then he hustles the hustler. She hustled us. We walk into the gym. She’s already on the treadmill. She looks like just an ordinary German girl. She smiles and sort of waves, shyly, but doesn’t go out of her way to say anything. As I’m walking out, she says: ‘Oh, can I have a picture? I’m a big fan.’ Reggie takes the picture.”

I ask him if he found it a bit creepy that she described his T-shirt as smelling like “fabric softener with spring scent.”

He looked nonplused: “Did she describe what my T-shirt smelled like?”

Yeah...I guess she did. I don't know why it matters. And I don't know how it is any different from Dowd calling Obama 'a smooth ride'. If female columnists want to engage their forbidden fantasies in the news columns of our most prestigious newspapers, what are you going to do? I find it distasteful.

snip//

Even if we succeed in electing Obama with large new Congressional majorities, we'll still be saddled with the sad old press corp. It's depressing. New Blood Please!!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

6. Can't stand her. Her treatment of both Gore and Kerry created a negative narrative

about Democrats as "girlie men." This woman is despicable and I can't understand why any progressive or liberal take her seriously.

[Neecy]

11. she pretty much abuses everyone....

I was at the annual book sale at my local library last month and picked up a copy of Bushworld. It came out in early 2005, I think.

It's mainly a collection, but she pounded Bush all during his first term - refers to him constantly as a child being kept occupied by Dick Cheney with games and lollipops, and she was brutally on-mark about the war. This was at a time when the press melted in the face of Bush's uber-patriotic aggression and bluster.

Yes, I remember her treatment of Gore and the collective press coverage of Gore helped to hand us this disaster. She never apologizes for *that*. But she seems to be one of the very few NYT writers who nailed Bush on the war when it wasn't popular to do so.

[rndmprsn]

15. i think your sig image and my avatar are soulmates =]

just sayin...

[Neecy]

18. I think so!

LOL...I love Ronald McDonald in there. Funny as hell.

[redqueen]

7. Distasteful is putting it mildly.

I thought these types were paid to trivialize things. I don't think she's trivializing her coverage or abusing her privilege. This is clearly what she's paid to do. How many elections has she covered where she was the equivalent of E! or Access Hollywood?

Clearly her bosses are pleased with her clowning, nonsensical coverage.

[Eurobabe]

12. I saw that article in Berlin, the next morning, Das Bild is a bird cage liner tabloid n/t

[ErinBerin84]

5. Maureen is such a dork.

Her writing is so drippy and self-indulgent, reads like it was written by a 16 year old.

[Thrill]

9. Can someone post the German article and a pic of the reporter?

[Eurobabe]

13. Not worth it.

[gblady]

10. I like Barack's answer here...

I asked how his “Citizen of the World” tour will go down in Steubenville, Ohio.

“There will probably be some backlash,” he said. “I’m a big believer that if something’s good then there’s a bad to it, and vice versa. We had a good week. That always inspires the press to knock me down a peg.”

[MilesColtrane]

16. She's pushing the media paradigm: All these nuts supporting Obama are just star struck cultists.

No one could possibly want him for President because of his intelligence, good judgement, or policies.