Monday, September 01, 2008

The Maureen Dowd “lightweight” problem

Responding to Maureen Dowd’s shameless Palin screed, Jack in Silver Springs said on the post thread

I think that your description of Dowd as a lightweight does a disservice to lightweights. She's beyond lightweight.
Jack has a point.

I struggled to find the right word for Dowd.

“Clown” came to mind, but most clowns I’ve met wouldn’t descend to the level Dowd did in her nasty, sexist column in which she even used the Palin children as part of her trashing of their Mom.

I dismissed “sophomoric” because most sophomores I’ve known have been much more mature than Dowd.

The foul language words? I won’t touch them. I don't want them on the comment thread.

Maybe what I should have settled for is “Maureen Dowd’s shameless Palin screed is even worse than her usual shameless screeds.”

Thanks, Jack, for your comment.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

In case this has not been addressed, I noticed that Ms. Dowd took at dig at the fact Palin got her degree from U of Idaho while the Messiah attended Harvard Law School.

Sounds to me like she must have a lot on the ball if she got from a less prestigious school to Governor without benefit of being plugged into the nation's elite network. She did not have access to important people or their money. Obama had the way paved for him. His opponents were either kicked off the ballot or done in by scandals. Hillary Clinton used her husband to get started and went shopping for a state with an open seat.

Palin got her seat the hard way, by taking out an incumbent.

Apparently, the right education, a component of "who you are" trumps working your way up ("what you do") for Maureen Dowd. Perhaps she feels that Obama and Hillary Clinton were owed their political good fortune by virtue of being vetted for the ruling class when they had barely reached adulthood.

Anonymous said...

John:

Maureen Dowd is one of many creatures of the night who take fiendish delight in spreading malice and misfortune on others. She can appropriately be described as a ghoul.

Ken
Dallas

Anonymous said...

The anonymous commenter in the previous section who was catty toward Debrah (the Diva) was way off base.

I have read D-i-W and her Diva World for quite some time and find her to be a brilliant commentator on current issues. Not only politics.

Personally I am not supporting Obama but that is irrevelant. I have seen many people try to cause trouble because of their ideology.

J-in-C is a good writer but dwells far too much on Barack Obama. Maybe that should be discussed by the same anonymous commenter.

Anyway, here is Diva's latest video. She's going to make a star out of KC. She's also very beautiful herself.

:))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySaS3gcNtBI

lpj (Lauren)

Anonymous said...

Please, a little respect. Dowd has earned a place in the blogger dictionary, where "to dowdify" means to quote out of context or use ellipses and partial quotes to totally distort and corrupt the obvious intent of the speaker. As such, she deserves as much respect as that other paragon of virtue, forever immortalized in the verb "to nifong."

Ex-prosecutor said...

I like to think of Maureen Dowd's writing as very "kute."

If I had a problem for which I needed intelligent advice, I'd pick Sarah Palin over Barak Obama. Governor Palin has lived her life as have most of us, with good and bad events, which she had to work her way through. From what I know of Senator Obama, his charmed status has allowed remain above us all.

I am authorized to say that, while I approve these comments, my wife does not, and, once again, we will cancel each other out at the ballot box.

Ken said...

Maureen Dowd can walk upright because the vacuum in her head is lighter than air. My daughter once could write like Ms Dowd, but then she got out of high school.