Admitting that the only people genuinely enthusiastic about the prospect of voting for Mitt Romney are other rich people with personality disorders, some of the Mormon faithful, and his paid campaign staff (at least the ones who don’t have to deal with him on a day-to-day basis) would damaged the Vital Horserace Narrative. So it’s time for the ‘thought leaders’ among the Media Villagers to gin up a counter-claim that President Obama ain’t much loved among the ranks neither. MoDo, trying to beat her own “Al Gore, practically lactating” nadir, badmouths “The Ungrateful President“:
… Obama smashed through all the barriers and dysfunction in his life to become a self-made, self-narrating president. His brash 2008 campaign invented a new blueprint to upend the Democratic establishment. So it’s understandable if Obama, with his Shaker aesthetic, is not inclined to play by the rococo rules of politics. Yet, as the president struggles to stay ahead of Moneybags Romney, his selective insensitivities may be hurting him.
Stories abound of big donors who stopped giving as much or working as hard because Obama never reached out, either with a Clinton-esque warm bath of attention or Romney-esque weekend love fests and Israeli-style jaunts; of celebrities who gave concerts for his campaigns and never received thank-you notes or even his full attention during the performance; of public servants upset because they knocked themselves out at the president’s request and never got a pat on the back; of V.I.P.’s disappointed to get pictures of themselves with the president with the customary signature withheld; of politicians disaffected by the president’s penchant for not letting members of Congress or local pols stand on stage with him when he’s speaking in their state (they often watch from the audience and sometimes have to lobby just to get a shout-out); of power brokers, local and national, who felt that the president insulted them by never seeking their advice or asking them to come to the White House or ride along in the limo for a schmooze…
“He comes from the neediest profession of all, except for acting, but he is not needy and he doesn’t fully understand the neediness of others; it’s an abstraction to him,” says Jonathan Alter, who wrote “The Promise” about Obama’s first year in office and is working on a sequel. “He’s not an ungracious person, but he can be guilty of ingratitude. It’s not a politically smart way for him to operate.” …
“Needy politicians, like Bill Clinton, recharge at political events,” says Alter. “But, for Obama, they deplete rather than create energy.”…
What will save him, Maraniss believes, is his fierce competitive will. “His is cool and Clinton’s is hot, but they burn at the same temperature inside,” he said. “So he does some of what he finds distasteful, but not all of it, and not all of it very well.”
Not quite “He smashed up the place, and it wasn’t his place”, but then, Dowd didn’t have Sally Quinn’s advantage in having married the guy who owned the newspaper, either…
Baud
I don’t think MoDo is writing about the “ranks.” She’s writing about the VIPs and how Obama isn’t kowtowing to the elites enough.
It’s the mirror image of the criticism you’ll find on your typical left-wing blog.
arguingwithsignposts
there. fix0red.
Would someone tell me exactly why MoDo is a columnist? She’s never been funny, she’s never been that original, and her attitude is shit. What I’m missing here?
slightly_peeved
Wow. For all these people that have been supposedly snubbed by Obama, you’d think she could find someone to actually quote. And people complain about Harry Reid not naming his source?
geg6
I INSIST THAT MODO REVEAL HER SOURCES!
Or just get laid at least once this decade. Can’t someone out there do us a solid and take one for the team to shut this frustrated harridan up? Everything she writes drips with sexual frustration. If she was getting some, she might actually write something that people give a shit about. The only thing she’s ever written that was worth reading was any time she tees off on her beloved Catholic Church.
David Koch
Meh. MoDo is relic of a bygone century when news was printed on paper.
GOS has a pretty funny story: Romney Disarray Deepens – Wingers Call for Boycott (Updated with Video)
Schlemizel
It goes without saying that Modo is wrong, she knows no other way. But if the pundit class could raise their heads up and actually look around – I know, way too much work when just making things up & attributing them to the Applebees salad bar or a taxi driver in Mumbai – they would see a ready made story to compare the Obama to the Marquis.
Not every Dem is nearly as excited about voting for Obama in 12 as they were in 08. True, it does not even approach the levels of hate & disgust many GOP faithful have for Willard but it contains a nugget of truth. Not that truth has any influence on these gasbags but think of how much more powerful that narrative would be.
So we know that Modo is not only lazy, she is none too bright, not clever and disconnected from the real world . . . but that goes without saying too I suppose
forked tongue
Actually, this gem comes not from Sally Quinn but from the Dean of Washington Journalists, The Brode.
Schlemizel
@David Koch:
Oh dear pasta please make this happen! Not only would it affect down ballot races it would insure a full metal nutbag response in 14! Paul Ryan might get primaried as “too leftish” and in 16 the we might get batshit Bachmann at the top of the ticket
NancyDarling
Um…can someone explain to me exactly what a “Shaker aesthetic” is?
Alexandra
@NancyDarling:
Shaker aesthetic
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers#Culture_and_artifacts
Simplicity, spartan etc.
amk
shorter modo (and alter and other bw buffoons) – why doesn’t obummer invite us to his cool parties ?
danielx
Oh dear, Villager pearl-clutching over Obama’s “ingratitude”. In the context of the Village, “ingratitude” translates to “does not have lips firmly attached to our buttocks at all times”.
How awful. Dean Broder is probably spinning in his coffin like a high speed centrifuge. Or maybe not, he’s probably still spinning explanations to St. Peter about how his beloved centrism doesn’t really mean following the political pendulum farther and farther to the right as the Mighty Wurlitzer pulls it along….
Also, too – “Shaker esthetic”? Maureen, darlin’, couldn’t you borrow something a little more weighty from David Brooks? Anybody who can vomit up “Hayekian modesty” could give you a better metaphor.
BruceFromOhio
Maureen Down quoting Jonathan Alter has about the same appeal as watching a dog eat its own vomit. You want “depleting energy”? Keep kneeling in front of your Republican criminal overlords, you’ll enjoy what real energy depletion looks, feels like.
NancyDarling
@NancyDarling: I was being somewhat facetious. Using it to describe Obama seems odd. But then it’s MoDo.
debbie
So now Obama’s bad because he does not pander to large donors? Do we owe Boss Tweed a posthumous apology?
Shawn in ShowMe
Shorter Dowd:
I can’t believe this Negro is gonna win in a landslide AGAIN.
WereBear
She belongs in a Pundit Musuem. “Behold the creatures whose egos became too large for their brains to handle!”
Lurking Canadian
@NancyDarling: Means Obama dresses like an executive, not like the pimpin Mac daddy you’d expect from Those People.
Gus
You have a stronger stomach than I do. Can’t, won’t read MoDo. Not even your excerpted piece.
Misterpuff
So MoDo thinks Obama should be Slappy White or a xerox copy of Bubba? He’s not Kabuki enough for her?
And these thin-skinned elites? “Does he like us? He didn’t tell me how cool I was? Doesn’t he know I’m VIP and stuff. What an ungrateful POS”
He’s the f’ing POTUS, why should he take time to fawn over you? He’s got real shit to do.
AxelFoley
She really needs to get laid.
Cassidy
God I hate that shit. Name some names or shut the fuck up.
mechwarrior online
I certainly don’t see the hype I did for him in 2008. A lot of it is his fault, he flagrantly lied on the campaign trail about a lot of things (single payer, closing GITMO, how to deal with Banks) so there is that… and a lot of it was people not paying attention to what he said (Obama said he wanted to reduce social security and medicare, no shit he will cut them he wants to).
I didn’t like a lot of what he said in 2008 and never warmed to him the way some people did. Though he’s failed far enough on the areas I care about that I will not be casting a vote for POTUS this year.
WereBear
@AxelFoley: Against her religion.
Strangepork
@mechwarrior online: He also never showed up with my pony.
gnomedad
“Stories abound” is the new “some say”.
Cassidy
Fixed for accuracy.
Steeplejack
DVR Alert!
TCM is showing a long block of movies starring Toshiro Mifune today and tonight, starting with a set of classics directed by Akira Kurosawa today. Rashomon (1950) just started a while ago, to be followed by Seven Samurai (1954) at 9:15 a.m. EDT, Throne of Blood (1957) at 12:45 p.m., Yojimbo (1961) at 2:45 p.m. and Red Beard (1965) at 4:45 p.m.
Then TCM is capping the evening with Hiroshi Inagaki’s epic samurai trilogy from 8:00 p.m. to 1:45 a.m.: Samurai 1: Musashi Miyamoto (1956), Samurai 2: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1957) and Samurai 3: Duel at Ganryu Island (1957).
Finally, if that’s not enough, there is Samurai Rebellion (1967) at 1:45 a.m. and The Rickshaw Man (1957) at 4:00 a.m.
That’s a mess o’ Mifune!
Bonus: If you stay up all night you can watch Lon Chaney and Lionel Barrymore in Tod Browning’s West of Zanzibar (1928) at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow as a palate-cleansing sorbet.
Raven
@mechwarrior online: With all due respect, who gives a fuck?
Dennis SGMM
A rich, nougat center of “some say” surrounded by a thin candy shell of butthurt.
Dowd has done nothing to break her wrongness streak with this piece of speculative fiction.
Poopyman
OT (if that’s even possible), but the Google massively time-killing Olympics race today is a kayak course, and it’s a (relatively) long one.
Here there be rocks. And gates.
Kay
She portrays all this schmoozing and stroking as perfectly innocent, “about relationship building”, all glad-handing and log-rolling, but a lot of times it isn’t, or it hasn’t been, in the past.
A lot of times these “needy” politicians and donors are asking for special favors or special treatment.
Obama’s had a remarkably corruption-free first term. The stimulus alone was remarkably corruption-free. I mean, Pelosi basically wrote it, so it was directed (broadly) toward liberal priorities, but it wasn’t unevenly distributed according to states or people or politicians who Obama knows or likes or needs, politically. The auto rescue was fair, too. Conservatives lie and say he showed favoritism towards the UAW, but that’s bullshit. Steve Rattner is no friend to unions. Unions took a hit in that deal like everyone else took a hit in that deal.
That’s pretty amazing, considering how much money went out.
His distance may hurt him within the little fiefdoms of the Democratic Party, but it probably makes it easier to keep it clean. Corruption would kill Obama’s appeal. It would damage him all out of proportion, and part of that has to do with his race.
I think he probably makes a conscious decision not to get too chummy with the local pols and “needy” donors, because the next thing you know there’s either actual favoritism or an appearance of favoritism.
We’ll see second term if he keeps this (essentially) squeaky clean reputation, but the GOP have had the House for 2 years and they haven’t been able to turn up anything at all.
peorgietirebiter
I have to agree with Baud, it’s the big donors look petty and silly. Obama looks serious and busy.
She’s got to write something and all things considered, it’s not so bad.
Dennis SGMM
@Kay:
Nicely put. The Village Idiots are probably suffering -gate withdrawal.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
I’ve been reading David Corn’s “Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party”. Its excellent if you want to know all the drama behind a very active time for the Obama administration. Maybe some of these cry babies should read it to find out what really happens at the big people’s table.
SenyorDave
@Strangepork: Actually, I think Mechwarrior was looking for a stable of ponies.
scott
Meh. It’s kind of a vanilla point. It’s an asset to a politician if he gets energized by dealing with people and stroking them, because he’ll do it and do it well, and it’s obviously not quite as good if he doesn’t like doing it. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses, and Maraniss’s point at the end about competitive will underscores that you can make up for your deficiencies in other areas.
Dennis SGMM
The shorter MoDo;
I couldn’t make up a column about how Obama is in thrall to the moneyed interests in the Democratic party so I made this up instead.
DW
@AxelFoley: Don’t think that’s her problem. She’s like Richard Cohen at the Washington Post – she has an unreasonably high opinion of herself with expectations to match, which shows up both politically and sexually. So she’s naturally sympathetic to the big rich.
Patricia Kayden
If Obama was so bad, he’d be trailing in all the polls — especially given the tepid economy and 8% unemployment rate (and gas prices are going up again). I think that is what is so shocking to his detractors. Why isn’t The Bot (with all his millions of dollars and billionaire supporters) beating him in the polls?
Kay
@Dennis SGMM:
I expected some with the stimulus. I expected money to flow to Ohio or Florida or Virginia perhaps out of proportion to the need in those states, but that doesn’t seem to have happened. Propublica tracked stimulus spending sort of relentlessly (good for them) and they haven’t found any political favors exchanged. Biden brags about it in his speeches, I think because he recognizes that it’s unusual, because he’s been in DC since he was 28.
Conservatives looked for bias everywhere: Presidential pardons (black people are being pardoned!), car dealership closings, emergency response funds, and found nothing.
Even Race to the Top (the education program, which I hate and think is the single worst thing to come out of the Obama Administration) seems to have been a genuine competition.
Chris Christie alleged unfair treatment there, but then was made a fool when it turned out they had taped the state presentations and either Christie or his representative lied about what happened.
amk
@Kay: This. Corruption-free was my main attraction to him.
Hoodie
Probably sourced to one or two whiny, lower level pols (rejected Blue Dogs?) who had the time to waste with a has-been like MoDo. Like anyone in the general public is going to care and, if anything, it paints Obama even more positively, as steely-eyed warrior rather than political hack wasting his time stroking needy egos. This is completely unlike the treatment given to Gore or Kerry, which was meant to feminize, or the treatment of Clinton, which was meant to make him look like a hillbilly drinking moonshine in the Oval Office.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Steeplejack:
Thank you very, very much for the heads up. Love me some Toshiro Mifune. He was the baddest mofo in cinema during the 1950s and 60s.
Just looked up on IMDB and found out that Kaoru Yachigusa, who played Mifune’s beloved in the Samurai trilogy, is still doing movies! Her combination of innocence and strength in those films is a wonder to behold.
Jennifer
@Patricia Kayden: About those gas prices going up again…I expect they’ll continue to go up the closer we get to the election, in proportion with how likely it looks that Rmoney will lose. Then they will miraculously start falling the week following the election.
I said it first, folks.
CarolDuhart2
Obama. An antidote
to the whining. As far as a drop-off of enthusiasm, folks need to remember that just about nothing is going to equal the enthusiasm of the first time. Everything was unique: the appeal of electing the first African-America, having the first Democratic nominee that actually had a personality and who actually related to people under 50 and those over who were simply weary of losing, the sheer creativity of it all.
This time there’s enthusiasm, a bit more muted because he has a record to defend, work to do-he can’t campaign all the time, and btw, we already know he’s the nominee.
WJS
@Kay:
When Obama wins in November, the clock will start ticking down to the first hearings on some phantom “abuse of power” issue. Impeachment begins when the race is called. And they will not stop until they have made Joe Biden President.
Kay
@amk:
I heard one of the morons on Morning Joe claiming the focus on manufacturing was favoritism towards “rust belt states” but they don’t know anything about manufacturing if they’re saying that. California and Texas are huge in manufacturing. I mean, they’re huge in anything they do, given their size, but this sort of moronic Chuck Todd view of the United States where people are pounding steel in Pittsburgh and assembling computers in their garages in California has nothing to do with the real United States. Southern states benefitted hugely from the auto rescue because although they don’t make “American” cars, they rely on a supply chain.
Obama said he wanted to move from favoring the FIRE and service sectors to a more even-handed focus on manufacturing. He thinks we’re all out of whack, as far as what kind of economic activity we reward and promote. I do, too. That’s what he’s doing. That isn’t limited to “rust belt” swing states.
arguingwithsignposts
@Kay:
Fixed.
LAC
As the great Samantha jones once said, someone needs the stick out of her ass and a dick in her cootchie, pronto ! Everything this woman writes is bitter barren bullshit.
japa21
I think mechwarrior works for the Romney campaign. There were enough lies in there to make up a Romney ad.
Kay
@WJS:
I’ll have to bow out. I checked out for the Clinton impeachment. I just reached my limit of listening to bullshit. We were renting a farmhouse at that time, and I’m a good gardener. I went a little nuts. I had a garden that was bigger than an acre. It kept expanding. I could have fed a small village. I had to learn to can tomatoes and make pickles. The whole thing was just surreal to me. I felt (and feel) like they misused a really important tool that Americans have (impeachment) and in effect turned that tool, that process, into a joke. I was just disgusted by media, Republicans, and (most) Democrats. Dowd was right in the center of that. Blech.
Steeplejack
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Seven Samurai just came on. Every time I see it I can’t believe it’s not widescreen! It looks bigger than it is. Or it’s bigger than it looks. Or something.
Dennis SGMM
@WJS:
If only they’d try it. Obama hasn’t done anything that could be construed as a high crime or a misdemeanor. Even your average LIV does pay attention to impeachment. Should the Rs try that gambit they’ll focus national attention on just how petty, spiteful, and obstructionist they are.
shortstop
@geg6: Dowd is beyond worthless at all times. Having said that, wow, your comment was a study in dated misogynist tropes, which is bewildering, because if I’m not mistaken, you’re a woman. “Harridan”? “Needs to get laid”? Seriously?
shortstop
@Kay:
Sure, but wasn’t that pretty much the intention? To a) pay us back for Nixon and b) defang impeachment for legitimate use against a future Republican president…the very next one to come along, as it happened?
rikyrah
@Baud:
everytime I read whining like this, I smile. I love that POTUS and FLOTUS could care less about socializing with the jackals.
Mark B.
It kind of reminds me of when Poochie was briefly a character on the Simpsons*. Dowd is trying to be hip by mouthing some of the buzzwords, but it falls flat because she doesn’t grasp the concepts. Politics is more than that, but you wouldn’t ever learn that by reading the press.
*Actually he was a character in a cartoon within the cartoon, voiced by Homer, but you know what I mean.
AnonPhenom
@arguingwithsignposts: @arguingwithsignposts:
Beat me to it…
ComIng from a Village Person, that has to win the Intertubes today for both Most Self Unaware and Most Unintentionally Funny statement.
Even the East German judge gave it a 10.0
WJS
@Kay: I hear you. I was on active duty at the time. It was a strange time to be an American and to know something about American history. It would seem that there was something about peace and prosperity that allowed a good number of powerful people to relax and enjoy a great soap opera, one with an outcome that was easily predicted.
WJS
@Dennis SGMM:
That is simply not the standard anymore. If it were, the jails would be full of Republicans.
Dennis SGMM
@WJS:
Hmmmm. The other day my son told me that one of the nutters was on TV (I don’t watch the nooz) and that he suggested that Obama should be impeached for not wanting to pass the Bush tax cuts in toto.
Stranger things have happened to be sure and I’ll never say never regarding the mass psychosis that is today’s Republican party. I will stand by my contention that an attempt to impeach will blow up in the Republicans’ faces.
Kay
@shortstop:
I do think that’s what they did. They took it out of the realm of “serious” and into the realm of “political’ and we won’t be able to use it effectively for decades, if we need it. “We” being “Americans”. Just so much structural, lasting damage they’ve racked up. From phony high crimes to elections decided by 5/4 majorities on a court. I look at Ken Starr, “respected legal intellect”, and just think “who are you kidding with this?”
He was a “political prosecutor” is the term that’s used here locally (it’s an insult) which should terrify ordinary people, because prosecutors have so much power.
Impeachment to me is like “break glass if you see fire raging”. A last resort. They tried to REMOVE a duly elected President! That’s huge. That’s approaching a coup.
WereBear
@Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937: Second the recc! It’s a fascinating read, and so far, all the personalities have been ringing true…
TOP123
@Steeplejack: Outstanding! ありがとうございます。
SRW1
MoDo is an emotionally very needy person who is unfullfilled in that desire. I might recall this wrong, but I believe she said so herself.
No surprise here then, the person she’s actually scolding are the dudes in her life who failed to give her what SHE was looking for.
amk
@Kay: Even assuming it was tilted towards rust belt, isn’t that a good thing for the unemployed, mostly blue collared folks there ? Effing pundtwits.
celticdragonchick
@Misterpuff:
Unfortunately, fawning and glad-handing are part of the job…that is, if you actually want to keep the job. Obama has never really been good at the insincere, oily, political machinations of higher office, at least not in the way that Clinton was.
negative 1
@arguingwithsignposts: She looked good in a corset back in the 1890’s. Why didn’t she just write ‘uppity’ and be done with it?
negative 1
@Kay: You mean Chuck Todd isn’t a man of the people? Next you’re going to tell me he’s actually less qualified to talk about effective policies than I am because he essentially got his position by being Fantasy Baseball Champion of the U.S.
Joel
@Baud: Also known as Dowd’s readers.
Mike in NC
MoDo and Kathleen Parker must have been separated at birth.
Joel
@mechwarrior online: Well good for you. Want a cookie?
LanceThruster
And the difference between ingratitude and uppity is…?
FlipYrWhig
@arguingwithsignposts:
My dad, who’s north of 60 years old, thinks she’s hot. She pushes “thinking man’s sex symbol” buttons. I think that has more to do with it than you’d think.
LanceThruster
MoDo’s anagrams approach oracle status —
5470 found. Displaying first 1000:
Undreamed Ow
Maundered Ow
Remade Wound
Reamed Wound
Mead Rewound
Dame Rewound
Made Rewound
Manured Owed
Unarmed Owed
Maunder Owed
Unmade Rowed
Unmade Dower
Roamed Unwed
Meadow Nuder
Meadow Under
Unread Mowed
Awed Mourned
Wade Mourned
Around Mewed
Mare Wounded
Ream Wounded
Ware Mounded
Wear Mounded
Amour Wended
Arum Endowed
A Wondered Um
A Wondered Mu
A Endowed Rum
A Endured Mow
A Endued Worm
A Denude Worm
A Redound Mew
A Rounded Mew
A Drowned Emu
A Wounded Rem
A Worded Menu
A Udder Women
A Demure Down
A Mewed Round
A Rewed Mound
A Mourned Wed
A Mourned Dew
A Wormed Dune
A Wormed Nude
A Mowed Nuder
A Mowed Under
A Demur Owned
…
from: wordsmith.org/anagram/index.html
McJulie
I just don’t think this is right. During the 2008 debates, one of the things I noticed was that McCain couldn’t get out of there fast enough, while Obama stuck around shaking hands and smiling and chatting, and appeared to genuinely enjoy it.
That’s when it occurred to me that one of the factors in a presidential race might be introvert-extrovert and that an extrovert — like Bill Clinton, or, as I read it, Obama — had a serious advantage when campaigning against an introvert, as I read McCain to be.
Now, maybe Obama is a sometimes-extrovert, and if he’s in a bad mood or tired or something he turns into an introvert. Maybe, at political events I have never seen images of, he doesn’t light up when communicating with the public. But this sounds like bullshit to me.
Joel
@LanceThruster: Many apt ones in there: “Manure owed” “Remade wound” and “Roamed unwed” fit the bill.
Haydnseek
@NancyDarling: Be glad to. A shaker aesthetic relates to art majors that specialize in the tiny yet arcane field of salt and pepper container design.
Frankensteinbeck
Complaining about schmoozing with the Village is secondary in this article. It’s the cloud she uses to make it sound like her complaint is that Obama is unfriendly. The key point is that wealthy GOP-leaning assholes contributed some money to Obama to play it safe (which is normal) and they’re furious it earned them no goodwill and no legislative bennies.
EDIT – Let’s be clear. Obama wants to raise taxes on the rich. Obama has made raising taxes on the rich popular for the first time in thirty years. The rich are shitting kittens.
Catsy
@mechwarrior online:
In case you’re wondering, this was where anyone who’s been actually paying attention to politics stopped taking your complaints seriously.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Can anyone tell me what this sentence means? Anyone? Anyone?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: I think it’s villagespeak for Obama’s a Ni-CLANG!
Michael Bersin
@forked tongue:
There’s a difference? When you’re standing around the free chow table at the inside the beltway party all the cocktail weenies look the same.
Michael Bersin
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
“‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free, ’tis the gift to come down where we ought to be…”
mclaren
Mm-hm. So that’s why Obama is eviscerating the Romney campaign before Romney’s even been nominated. That’s why the panic in the Romney campaign is so extreme that now Faux News is calling on him to fire his entire campaign staff. That’s why Obama is ahead of Romney on all measures from personal likeability to personal effectiveness by double digits. That’s why Obama has pulled ahead in polling by a wide margin among undecided voters in the key battleground states.
If this is Obama doing what he does “not…very well,” boy, you better watch out when Obama gets his mojo going.
Obama is a guy I would not want to go up against. He’s like that samuari in Thirteen Samurai who faces off against Lord Naritsugu and his 200 retainers and unfurls a scroll reading TOTAL MASSACRE. “No survivors. Kill them all.”
And then proceeds to do exactly that.
Mnemosyne
@McJulie:
I think you and MoDo are talking about two slightly different things. You’re talking about Obama enjoying being a politician in that he gets to talk to ordinary people about things that are important to them. MoDo is talking about being a politician who enjoys talking to politicians and other politically powerful people in the proverbial smoke-filled rooms. That’s the kind of political stuff that Bush II did really well, IMO.
I always assumed that they picked Biden as VP because he’s been in Washington a long time and does that smoke-filled room stuff really well.
redoubt
@Kay: @shortstop: Thirding this. This is the reason the term “Independent Counsel” makes no one in Washington quake in their boots. Although it should.
Mnemosyne
@McJulie:
Along those lines, I read a really interesting book recently called K Blows Top, which is all about Nikita Khrushchev’s tour of America in 1959. I found it especially interesting to what extent Khrushchev was an old-fashioned politician who loved nothing more than wading into crowds to shake hands and kiss babies.
That was part of the reason he and Nixon loathed each other — Nixon was very much the “smoke-filled rooms” kind of politician and he hated how Khrushchev could win people over with goofy antics.