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Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Boom_70, Feb 14, 2007.

  1. Guy_Incognito

    Guy_Incognito Well-Known Member

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    I totally agree, that's probably why she hates Bush so much too, right?
     
  2. EE94

    EE94 Guest

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    That's how you want to choose your next leader, Americans.
    Did he use a heater and when did he use it.
    ::)
     
  3. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    In context of Zeleny story the heater question was a fair one:

    Obama Formally Enters Presidential Race
    By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY
    SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Feb. 10 — Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, standing before the Old State Capitol where Abraham Lincoln began his political career, announced his candidacy for the White House on Saturday by presenting himself as an agent of generational change who could transform a government hobbled by cynicism, petty corruption and “a smallness of our politics.”

    “The time for that politics is over,” Mr. Obama said. “It is through. It’s time to turn the page.”

    Wearing an overcoat but gloveless on a frigid morning, Mr. Obama invoked a speech Lincoln gave here in 1858 condemning slavery — “a house divided against itself cannot stand” — as he started his campaign to become the nation’s first black president.

    Speaking smoothly and comfortably, Mr. Obama offered a generational call to arms, portraying his campaign less as a candidacy and more as a movement. “Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what’s needed to be done,” he said. “Today we are called once more, and it is time for our generation to answer that call.”

    It was the latest step in a journey rich with historic possibilities and symbolism. Thousands of people packed the town square to witness it, shivering in the single-digit frostiness until Mr. Obama appeared, trailed by his wife, Michelle, and two young daughters. (“I wasn’t too cold,” Mr. Obama said later, grinning as he acknowledged a heating device had been positioned at his feet, out of the audience’s view.)

    Still, for all the excitement on display, Mr. Obama’s speech also marked the start of a tough new phase in what until now has been a charmed introduction to national politics. Democrats and Mr. Obama’s aides said they were girding for questions about his experience in national politics, his command of policy, a past that has gone largely unexamined by rivals and the news media, and a public persona defined more by his biography and charisma than by how he would seek to use the powers of the presidency.
     
  4. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    Senator Obama picks the wrong year to quit smoking.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    Just about every candiate for president, at some point, has a moment or two when he makes clear how much he hates those press jackals. (Does the phrase "major league asshole" ring a bill?)

    That a presidential candidate LOVED the press would be news.

    Also, Obama's biggest weakness as a campaigner is going to be the lack of scrutiny he's received at lower levels. He's never run a competitive race, including the time he got stomped in his bid to unseat Bobby Rush in the House. Obama lucked into the Senate seat when the leading candidates in his own party (Blair Hull) and outside his party (Jack Ryan) were found to be wife-beaters (Hull) or, in what I still can't figure out the scandal involved here, wanting to make freaky love to their wife (Ryan).

    I like Obama, but at some point he's going to be tested, and tested much harder than someone asking him if he had a heater. Or a gyroball. (Sorry.)
     
  6. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    (sigh) I am not saying that, and I think you know it.
     
  7. alleyallen

    alleyallen Guest

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    JD, in that context, yes, the question was appropriate with the rest of the story. The way it was presented in Mo Dowd's story...not so much.
     
  8. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    Yes, as I said earlier, there is a difference between the reporter's asking of the question and Dowd's use of the exchange between the reporter and Obama. She is saying it's telling (about his apparent unreadiness for the scrutiny, I think). You say it's not. I don't have a problem with that.
     
  9. jambalaya

    jambalaya Member

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    The dude is trying to quit smoking. The reporter asked him if he cheated. That's NOT a People-esque question.

    Now, if the reporter asked "Do you prefer bikini briefs when hanging 10?", that could indeed be a People-esque question, albeit something we surely want to know.
     
  10. Montezuma's Revenge

    Montezuma's Revenge Active Member

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    This illustrates why Dowd was at her best during the Clinton-Monica nonsense.

    She's only in her element when she's writing about nothing.

    She's Fluff the Magic Dragon.
     
  11. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    [​IMG]
     
  12. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    Re: Mo Dowd Sticks a Pin in the Obama Balloon

    To Fenian's point about the empty calories in Mo Dowd's columns, I understand what he's saying. There's not a lot of traditional reporting going on with her column obviously and there are more than sufficient pop culture analogies. But she's usually getting a pretty good point across. I like her stuff and rarely miss a column.
     
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