• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Not all heroes wear capes.

He really is that stupid.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Question for the Group

Question for the Group

by @heymistermix.com|  April 22, 20139:01 am| 110 Comments

This post is in: Our Failed Media Experiment

FacebookTweetEmail

I usually ignore MoDo columns, but apparently she pushed out a real turd yesterday. I would read it but I could barely get through the synopsis, which got me thinking about the whole MoDo situation. I don’t know anyone who takes her seriously, yet her worst efforts always seem to get some attention because she writes at the New York Times. We all know that Balloon Juice is highly sensitive to the needs of our readers, so here’s a little poll.


FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Monday Morning Open Thread: The Comfort of the Ordinary
Next Post: Earth Day »

Reader Interactions

110Comments

  1. 1.

    TR

    April 22, 2013 at 9:03 am

    I want an option that says: “YES. She’s reached her sell-by date and has become ridiculous.”

    She needs to be mocked. Dullards triumph when good men do nothing.

  2. 2.

    Cassidy

    April 22, 2013 at 9:05 am

    I don’t give a shit. I don’t read her and the only reason I ever see anything from her is because of BJ. Honestly, there are better things to consume one’s creative writing skills with than trying to point out the stupid in a person who lives in a mode of perpetual dumbass, but I’m not a FPer so do what you will.

  3. 3.

    Suffern ACE

    April 22, 2013 at 9:08 am

    Just because she’s reached her sell by date doesn’t mean that someone won’t take her out of the fridge, remove her cap and sniff her from time to time. She has always kind of been this way and well be stuck with her for 20 more years. It’s important to warn the kids about her, I guess.

  4. 4.

    mistermix

    April 22, 2013 at 9:09 am

    @TR: I added a bit to “Yes” to add the possibility for mockery, though she seems pretty self-mocking to me.

  5. 5.

    Scott S.

    April 22, 2013 at 9:11 am

    @TR: What he said. Refusing to mock the mockable is a failure of mockery.

  6. 6.

    Schlemizel

    April 22, 2013 at 9:13 am

    I’d put here in the same category as L’il Andy. Ignore the normal day-to-day useless mess they normally barf out. I’d only bring them up when they barf up a particularly obnoxious bit of bile. Deny them recognition and deny them clicks – its the only thing that can correct them

  7. 7.

    gogol's wife

    April 22, 2013 at 9:13 am

    @TR:

    Right.

  8. 8.

    gogol's wife

    April 22, 2013 at 9:15 am

    I am still filled with rage that she has the nerve to criticize Obama, the only president who has raised this issue at all in a very long time, because he acknowledged that getting ANYTHING through our bought-and-paid-for Congress was going to be a hard task. She’d be happier if he misled the Newtown families into thinking it was going to be a snap? She actually thinks that his having a drink with Mark Begich was going to change anything? She doesn’t actually think that. She’s a cynical, egotistical woman who cares about nothing except her own prestige.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    April 22, 2013 at 9:17 am

    A poll? What’s next? Like buttons?

  10. 10.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 22, 2013 at 9:18 am

    YES! “I don’t give a shit” is running away with the Oscar!

  11. 11.

    WereBear

    April 22, 2013 at 9:19 am

    If we do not mock her, the Times will continue swirling down the drain.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 22, 2013 at 9:20 am

    The fact that this woman (and just about everyone else on the NYT op ed pages) has a platform is a searing indictment of the prestige (or is that the anti-prestige?) of the NYT.

    My god, if you use it as bird cage liner, you’re endangering your parakeet.

  13. 13.

    piratedan

    April 22, 2013 at 9:21 am

    sorry to be OT

    RIP Chrissy Amphett of the Divinyls

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epOwbSqZhj0

  14. 14.

    Warren Terra

    April 22, 2013 at 9:21 am

    Quite some time ago now – I think it was about ten years ago – MoDo was on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and was explaining that she had been made the New York Times‘s White House Correspondent, possibly the highest-prestige job in the country’s Newspaper Of Record, and that she found the job boring and basically refused to do more than half-ass her work, until in desperation to get that job out of her hands and into those of someone who’d try to actually do the reporting her bosses at the Times promoted her from having to write the News: they made her a Columnist. She told this story herself, to however many hundreds of thousands or even millions of strangers Fresh Air reaches, and seemed quite pleased with herself about it.

    So, yeah: ignore her unless you hear she’s done something really special. Don’t reward her usual lazy idiocy with attention.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 22, 2013 at 9:21 am

    @Baud:

    Hmm…this comment needs a like button…

  16. 16.

    Maude

    April 22, 2013 at 9:25 am

    @gogol’s wife:
    She is worthless and thinks she has something to say. The NYT op ed is awful.

  17. 17.

    Lee

    April 22, 2013 at 9:26 am

    One of the many reason I enjoy Balloon-Juice is that “I don’t give a shit” is crushing the vote.

  18. 18.

    askew

    April 22, 2013 at 9:27 am

    She’s always been a joke. But, the folks at Daily Kos think her column yesterday was dead-on. Seriously, just read some of the comments at that cesspool. ODS isn’t just an issue on the right.

  19. 19.

    handsmile

    April 22, 2013 at 9:27 am

    Has such a BJ readers’ poll been conducted for David Brooks? If not, why not? (And if so, I’m sorry to have missed it.)

    Each inhabit the same op-ed real estate; each appear frequently (Bobo more so) on television; each regularly “push out real turds.” In what way is Dowd more culpable than Brooks?

    N.B. The opinions of Maureen Dowd have meant nothing to me (nor have been read in full) for a long time, whether she’s slagging Obama or members of the Bush/Cheney regime

  20. 20.

    max

    April 22, 2013 at 9:27 am

    I don’t know anyone who takes her seriously, yet her worst efforts always seem to get some attention because she writes at the New York Times.

    I’ll stick up for MoDo here! The content of what she writes is no worse and rarely better than a computer-generated WaPo OpEd page column.

    What gets on everyone nerves is that it’s standard Villager fare (her sibling is a pollster, innit he?) written in the style of a bodice-ripper.

    max
    [‘Waiting for President Fabio.’]

  21. 21.

    Eric U.

    April 22, 2013 at 9:27 am

    she is a republican tool. Reserved for special occasions where lying from a nominal liberal is needed. We got sick of that shtick back during the Bush years, so it’s on special reserve right now. Apparently she decided it was time.

  22. 22.

    Todd

    April 22, 2013 at 9:29 am

    Gosh, nobody could have predicted that giving empty places like Alaska and Wyoming the ability to cancel out California and New York in the Senate, all while having a de facto supermajority requirement to pass pretty much anything would create a problem.

  23. 23.

    Schlemizel

    April 22, 2013 at 9:29 am

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Sadly, there are time I wish we had like buttons! Occasionally someone will hit a particularly pithy or funny note that does not need a reply but to which I would love to give an ‘atta-commetor’ to. I realize I am in the minority on this issue . . .WAIT! does BJ allow for filibusters? Maybe I the minority can force our will on the majority like in a real democracy!

  24. 24.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 9:30 am

    We get offended by her snark because we, ourselves, do not understand Obama’s strategy. He is highlighting, just as he did his whole first term, who the villains are. He is continuing to label and define his opposition and who they are controlled by. He did that his first term and then put the hurt on Romney, their selected representative, hurting him and them pretty badly. Still, they are not dead. You cannot get to the effed up Republican party that exists now in an easy two step processes. You have to continually surface their bullshit and then hurt them with it — reinforcing the perception on them as continual losers and supporters of interests that hurt the people. I think that meme is getting pretty set. It will be interesting to see how the 2014 midterms go, but my belief is that they will not go well for the Republicans and by 2016, they will be running into the woods.

    Obama is continuing to be underestimated and his opposition continues to fall into trap after trap. He knows them well and knows that they just can’t ignore the bait. Like rats, they go for the peanut butter on the trap everytime. Modo is irrelevant.

  25. 25.

    Amir Khalid

    April 22, 2013 at 9:33 am

    I’m one of the few to vote yes. As a matter of principle, I dislike bans. What is MoDo is banned from mention on Balloon Juice, and then she writes something noteworthy, or even — GASP! — praiseworthy?

    Never say never, and all that …

  26. 26.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 22, 2013 at 9:34 am

    @Elie:

    The problem is that the refs (the vermin of the Village) are bought and paid for by the villains (the tumbrel worthy of the top 1% and their serf lackies of the 27%).

  27. 27.

    Schlemizel

    April 22, 2013 at 9:34 am

    @handsmile:

    My hope is that MoDo and Bobo decide to have a love child. I want this love child (hereafter named BoDo) to become the leading pundit on the pages of the NYT. I expect long columns filled with gibberish and mindless Non sequiturs in marginally recognizable English. BoDo will be the toast of NPR and hailed as the one true centrist who will save tha nation

    ALL HAIL BODO!

  28. 28.

    Morzer

    April 22, 2013 at 9:34 am

    The only thing more boring and futile than MoDo is meta-MoDo. How about more writing on Democratic efforts to organize at the local level? How do we get rid of e.g. Max Of The 28 Lobbyists Baucus and get some better in post?

    Reading warmed-over snark about the third-rate hacks of this world isn’t generally entertaining and it doesn’t have much value for the future.

  29. 29.

    Amir Khalid

    April 22, 2013 at 9:37 am

    @Schlemizel:
    I like this suggestion. As it happens, “bodoh” is Malay for stupid.

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 22, 2013 at 9:38 am

    @Schlemizel:

    We already know how that would work out.

    Its name is Ross Douchehat.

  31. 31.

    handsmile

    April 22, 2013 at 9:39 am

    @Schlemizel:

    Yes indeed, one prig to rule them all and in the darkness bind them.

  32. 32.

    aimai

    April 22, 2013 at 9:40 am

    I find it important to read about MoDo periodically to find out how very stupid people might think about our political system and political actors. I can be sure that whatever she says she thinks, she’s got it utterly backwards, and so I know what not to think. But there is a malevolent, narcissistic, bitchy, aspect to it (perfectly captured in Charlie Pierce’s review of this particular column) that is just creepy to be complicit in. Its like being asked to voyeuristically view someone else’s private BDSM fetish ritual.

  33. 33.

    Ira-NY

    April 22, 2013 at 9:43 am

    Of late, it seems MoDo has an idea for a joke and then builds her column around that as opposed to having a policy idea and finding an amusing way to discuss it.

  34. 34.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 9:43 am

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    We saw how irrelevant the MSM was last election — despite their “pronouncements” of the impending “landslide” by Romney…

    The target has always been crushing the sense that government can be effective. THAT is what Obama represents — that government can be a moral and effective means to help citizens meet needs that are common to everyone and important for the society. The MSM wants to have consumers – not citizens. They don’t want citizens holding anyone accountable for anything because you know, they will one day want to hold them and their corporate masters, accountable. THAT is why they hate Obama. That is why there is the continual work to bring him down a peg or two.. He hurts their aim to keep the American public as mindless robotic consumers. They don’t want people converted to citizenship. They disparage the Newtown parents and any calls for justice and fairness because they don’t want people to wake up to their own power.

  35. 35.

    Joey Giraud

    April 22, 2013 at 9:43 am

    I voted yes as a big raspberry to all the regulars who consistantly confuse apathy with sophistication.

  36. 36.

    aimai

    April 22, 2013 at 9:44 am

    @Schlemizel:

    While having my hair and nails done at an Irish Salon frequented by my Irish Firefighter Uncles–democrats all!–I found myself reading the latest synopsis of an important finding in the social/philosophical/economic/phys. ed sciences. Let me reduce the entire column for you:

    Quip
    Insult
    Paragraph restating someone else’s work
    Obscure reference to long forgotten literature
    The Democratic President is a fag
    Modern American Society is divided between good and evil, applebees and starbucks, straights and queers (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), natalists and dinks
    and did I mention that the dems are fags?
    And…fin.

  37. 37.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    April 22, 2013 at 9:46 am

    As long as her columns are printed on soft enough paper with non-smearing ink, her stuff is perfectly suited for wiping with if you run out of regular toilet paper.

    Just not too often as the sewer pipes can quickly get clogged up with too much shit passing through them.

  38. 38.

    Hoodie

    April 22, 2013 at 9:47 am

    The worst thing about the MoDos and Bobos is that, once in a blue moon, they write something that’s not completely putrid and liberals will eagerly jump on it and say something like “Even David Brooks thinks . . . ” or “MoDo really nailed . . . ” MoDo is a perfect example; her “takedowns” of Bush were generally as moronic as her hit pieces on Obama, typically a steaming pile of armchair psychologizing. Judgement or validation from those fucking morons is worth nothing. If you find yourself agreeing with something Brooks or MoDo says, your first impulse should be to check is whether you’re full of shit. If not, then label it a blind squirrel event and move on. Do not encourage them on the rare times they’re hovering near truth or waste time assailing their blatantly stupid columns. Vote for not give a shit.

  39. 39.

    ricky

    April 22, 2013 at 9:48 am

    Mo-Do has proven she can connect with her audience. She still does not know how to write a column without self contradiciton. Nobody in the College of Cardinals fears Mo-Do and elected another Pope with a dick.

    Why didn’t she have Obama over to dinner, extend him some common courtesy, scare the shit out of him, and tell him to have rallies in Ohio before the vote?

  40. 40.

    Cassidy

    April 22, 2013 at 9:48 am

    If you really wanted to test the pulse of the BJ pack of howling jackals Commentariat, you’d have added “eat a bag of salted dicks” as an option. Less that, we have to choose the best possible answer.

  41. 41.

    gogol's wife

    April 22, 2013 at 9:49 am

    @aimai:

    That Pierce column is beautiful!

  42. 42.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 9:50 am

    @Hoodie:

    Mostly, she is just mindless entertainment. Her psychobabble allows you to see into the mindset of the MSM/corporatists that she represents. No biggie. She influences no one. She just transmits the daily message from the owners…

  43. 43.

    David in NY

    April 22, 2013 at 10:00 am

    The only answer I get when I ask someone why she (often “she”) thinks Dowd is good, is “She’s funny.” I got in trouble for responding to one of my wife’s best friends explaining in far to much detail why that’s so wrong.

  44. 44.

    Anya

    April 22, 2013 at 10:03 am

    @gogol’s wife: My favorite part:

    In case you missed it over the weekend, Maureen Dowd came swanning around the op-ed pages of the New York Times again, swooping across the main parlor and sprawling across the staircases, and wondering why the president — or any president — just doesn’t come sweeping in and carry her off to the land where pleasure knows no boundaries and rapture no frontiers.

    And this:

    There were ways to get to 60 votes.

    Name one that doesn’t involve a Hollywood movie, a reasonable Tom Coburn, a drunk Mark Begich, or any other fictional device.

    Read more: In Which Maureen Dowd Seeks A Manly Man – Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/In_Which_MoDo_Seeks_A_Manly_M#ixzz2RCVo5iBh

  45. 45.

    Schlemizel

    April 22, 2013 at 10:04 am

    @Amir Khalid:
    Oh, that is too perfect! THANKS!

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    OMG! You are right & I missed that completely.

    @handsmile:
    Thank your please collect your Internet!

  46. 46.

    Schlemizel

    April 22, 2013 at 10:07 am

    @Hoodie:

    Oddly enough I hated her take downs of Boy Blunder for the same reason I hate her take downs of Dems. They are Putrid regurgitation of an angry, incurious self-involved ass.
    @aimai:has it exactly right

  47. 47.

    Anya

    April 22, 2013 at 10:17 am

    @Schlemizel: She’s the high school girl who made a smart-ass comment mocking someone, then accidently discovered that being mean could make her popular. She’s still that mean girl… she refuses to grow up.

  48. 48.

    stinger

    April 22, 2013 at 10:22 am

    @WereBear: She’s been mocked here for a long time, and the swirl hasn’t abated. And anyway, so what if it does continue? Who cares besides Times employees and shareowners?

  49. 49.

    stinger

    April 22, 2013 at 10:24 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: Like.

  50. 50.

    beergoggles

    April 22, 2013 at 10:36 am

    Mocking her is too easy. Far better to mock the NYT for providing her with the platform.

  51. 51.

    kindness

    April 22, 2013 at 10:40 am

    Dowd sucks. My favorite thing about her was when she was on the cover of The Rolling Stone. She was barefoot a does have some large ones. Folks apparently got the idea that Maureen had Hobbit feet because of that cover and it embarrassed Maureen greatly. I think that is soooo funny. But what do you expect from someone who is still a juvenille in too many ways?

  52. 52.

    priscianus jr

    April 22, 2013 at 10:48 am

    @Elie: “Obama is continuing to be underestimated and his opposition continues to fall into trap after trap. He knows them well and knows that they just can’t ignore the bait. Like rats, they go for the peanut butter on the trap everytime. Modo is irrelevant.”

    For all the morons that believe President Obama is a Muslim, he’s a lot more like a Taoist.

  53. 53.

    Paul in KY

    April 22, 2013 at 10:49 am

    @Elie: I hope you are right. They may be evil buffoons, but they don’t seem to care that they are seen that way, as long as they can perform concrete actions in Senate/House to stop whatever they can stop.

    I did vote ‘yes’.

  54. 54.

    Paul in KY

    April 22, 2013 at 10:50 am

    @Amir Khalid: That is serendipity right there!

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    April 22, 2013 at 10:56 am

    Dare I mention that Maureen Dowd and Michael Douglas dated for a while? It’s particularly weird to make your ex-boyfriend into your fantasy president, even when he played a fantasy president in a major motion picture.

    When most people think of Aaron Sorkin’s fantasy president, they think of Martin Sheen as Jeb Bartlett on “The West Wing.” But not MoDo, presumably because she never dated Martin Sheen and can’t inject herself into his life after the breakup.

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    April 22, 2013 at 11:02 am

    And the reason we all know that Dowd dated Douglas (pre-Zeta Jones) is that Dowd loves to talk about it:

    But her taste for famous men has, from time to time, required it of her. She describes Michael Douglas, whom she dated right before he married Catherine Zeta-Jones, as “a really nice guy, a very romantic guy.” The humor of their romance is not lost on her: “Whether he can handle a woman who wields ice picks? I used to tease him about that. Sometimes actors ask me out, and then I’m worried because they can act like they’re not scared of me, or threatened? But then maybe later they are.

  57. 57.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 11:15 am

    @beergoggles:

    She is a “hit” generator — not only for the Times but all sorts of blogs — like this one. She knows how to pull our chains and how to up her visibility…

  58. 58.

    Shalimar

    April 22, 2013 at 11:20 am

    She has talent and intelligence, but good god, the woman is so emotionally messed up she could be a member of my family.

  59. 59.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 11:21 am

    @Paul in KY:

    They cared after they lost last election and they will care as their poll numbers continue to tank over time. They have no other plausible options, given their belief systems. As I said many times during the election, Obama has positioned himself squarely over the reasonable middle and slightly to the right. They have no choice but to stay radically to the right, since they will NEVER agree with him on anything. So they remain pegged to the right and to the insane. Obama is not about to get off of that reasonable middle. He doesn’t have to fight them. He just needs to make reasonability (and agreement with him), the only place for them to go. He KNOWS they can’t do it.. at least not yet. Christie did it some because he is the Governor of a true blue state. The others are just sitting out there — unable to move to reasonability and in real political danger over time…

  60. 60.

    MattF

    April 22, 2013 at 11:25 am

    It’s hard to make non-trivial criticism of MoDo without getting all sexist, but I’ll go ahead and do it anyway, just for the record. She’s doin’ the castrating bitch. She has her good days and her bad days. Some days she wears the red shoes. She can’t help it.

  61. 61.

    Jake Nelson

    April 22, 2013 at 11:25 am

    How was this not filed under “Readership Capture”?

  62. 62.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 11:26 am

    Another thing… you don’t see any effective predator just jumping on prey and starting to eat. Usually — even with big predators like alligators, komodo dragons, great white sharks — they take a big bite out of their “victims” then withdraw to let them bleed to death. Komodo dragons don’t even need to chase down their prey, since their bite is so poisonous, if the bleeding doesnt get them, the poison does. Have patience for the bleed out. Why get cut up in a fight when you don’t have to?

  63. 63.

    BarbCat

    April 22, 2013 at 11:31 am

    I think her attitude comes from way back in time, around 2008, when she so vigorously abused the Clintons, Hillary in particular and she feels ‘owed’ by if not the dreamy Barack than by the FLOTUS and POTUS together. It’s never coming Mo; and neither are you.

  64. 64.

    aimai

    April 22, 2013 at 11:35 am

    @Mnemosyne:

    That is also one of the most craptacular movies ever made. I watched it with my jaw on the floor, especially at the cheesy scene where apparently the White House is hosting a major diplomatic event with (the french president?) and they have not brought out a translator or anyone who seems to know where france is on the map and Annette Benning has to step in with her highschool french. You just cringe at the cheap props and the cheaper writing.

  65. 65.

    dance around in your bones

    April 22, 2013 at 11:47 am

    I can’t even see the poll (probably NoScript is blocking it) but I’m in the ‘don’t give a shit’ zone. I’d rather read Charlie Pierce mocking her in his own inimitable fashion. THAT was good.

  66. 66.

    AxelFoley

    April 22, 2013 at 12:04 pm

    @Elie:

    We get offended by her snark because we, ourselves, do not understand Obama’s strategy. He is highlighting, just as he did his whole first term, who the villains are. He is continuing to label and define his opposition and who they are controlled by. He did that his first term and then put the hurt on Romney, their selected representative, hurting him and them pretty badly. Still, they are not dead. You cannot get to the effed up Republican party that exists now in an easy two step processes. You have to continually surface their bullshit and then hurt them with it — reinforcing the perception on them as continual losers and supporters of interests that hurt the people. I think that meme is getting pretty set. It will be interesting to see how the 2014 midterms go, but my belief is that they will not go well for the Republicans and by 2016, they will be running into the woods.

    Obama is continuing to be underestimated and his opposition continues to fall into trap after trap. He knows them well and knows that they just can’t ignore the bait. Like rats, they go for the peanut butter on the trap everytime. Modo is irrelevant.

    This. All this.

  67. 67.

    AxelFoley

    April 22, 2013 at 12:08 pm

    @Elie:

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    We saw how irrelevant the MSM was last election — despite their “pronouncements” of the impending “landslide” by Romney…

    The target has always been crushing the sense that government can be effective. THAT is what Obama represents — that government can be a moral and effective means to help citizens meet needs that are common to everyone and important for the society. The MSM wants to have consumers – not citizens. They don’t want citizens holding anyone accountable for anything because you know, they will one day want to hold them and their corporate masters, accountable. THAT is why they hate Obama. That is why there is the continual work to bring him down a peg or two.. He hurts their aim to keep the American public as mindless robotic consumers. They don’t want people converted to citizenship. They disparage the Newtown parents and any calls for justice and fairness because they don’t want people to wake up to their own power

    And this.

  68. 68.

    Joel

    April 22, 2013 at 12:20 pm

    @Joey Giraud: I think apathy is just more effective. If enough people stop giving a shit, she’ll just wither off and die. At least that’s my hope.

  69. 69.

    Emerald

    April 22, 2013 at 12:22 pm

    @askew: The Daily Kos went completely hysterical over the chained-CPI that’s never going to happen, and have become, almost officially, an anti-Democratic site. They have gone full circle to join the Teabaggers, and will be working hard to defeat anyone who doesn’t meet their required level of purity, which means, of course, a good 90% of Democrats.

    I still frequent the place for the pootie diaries, but even those folks are talking about moving out.

  70. 70.

    ricky

    April 22, 2013 at 12:22 pm

    Over at another blog a commenter offered this point, which seems so obvious I am surprised not to have seen it elsewhere or made it myself.

    Even if the bill had passed the Senate, it’s likely that the House would have voted it down. Red state Senators may have been unwilling to commit political suicide for a bill that wouldn’t even become law.

  71. 71.

    beergoggles

    April 22, 2013 at 12:36 pm

    @Elie: That’s because liberal blogs keep linking to her and it’s a habit we need to get out of. The only time I ever visit the NYT now is to read Krugman – only reward them for good behavior.

  72. 72.

    joe in oklahoma

    April 22, 2013 at 12:41 pm

    Frankly, I can’t stand her pontifications. However, I read this one… her ego aside, I think Dowd’s point might be that Obama needs to change tactics. People are tired of the GOP blocking Obama’s agenda, but they are also getting tired of Obama negotiating things away (chained CPI, tax cuts) and not pushing harder or more creatively for his agenda. whatever he is doing isn’t working. it is not ALL the fault of the GOP.

  73. 73.

    joe in oklahoma

    April 22, 2013 at 12:43 pm

    @ricky: so, since it would have been voted down, we shouldn’t have tried it in the first place? isn’t that akin to the NRA argument that gun laws don’t make sense because criminals will ignore them?

  74. 74.

    Arclite

    April 22, 2013 at 12:48 pm

    I wouldn’t restrict posts by here, just like I wouldn’t resist those by Megan. So much to make fun of.

  75. 75.

    Dan

    April 22, 2013 at 12:49 pm

    @Mnemosyne: I didn’t know about Douglas. She dated Sorkin for a while too, right? Adds some really strange subtext to the whole article.

  76. 76.

    Peggy

    April 22, 2013 at 12:49 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    I don’t even read Krugman, since he just keeps repeating deficits are not the problem to the VSPs. I only read any of the other op ed columnists when I get alerted to a turd that’s been hit out of the park, like “Suck on this”.

    My husband reads K, since he feels commenting may have educational value.

  77. 77.

    NorthLeft12

    April 22, 2013 at 12:56 pm

    What the eff is a MoDo?

  78. 78.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    April 22, 2013 at 1:02 pm

    TPM now has a link to Robert Costa slapping down MoDo’s column. The link post is titled “Why Didn’t Obama Use The Fairy Dust?”

  79. 79.

    gorram

    April 22, 2013 at 1:02 pm

    I know so many totebaggers who think she’s a “real” liberal I couldn’t pick any option but the first. Let’s not build our own echo chamber, folks. That doesn’t mean MoDo 24/7, but keeping tabs seems prudent.

  80. 80.

    Anoniminous

    April 22, 2013 at 1:05 pm

    @priscianus jr:

    Coming soon, a MoDo column ‘splaining:

    1. Obama is a Taoist.
    2. Taoism is a Chinese Philosophy
    3. Maoism is a Chinese Philosophy
    4. Therefore, Obama is a Maoist.

  81. 81.

    Jebediah

    April 22, 2013 at 1:09 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    @Schlemizel:
    I like this suggestion. As it happens, “bodoh” is Malay for stupid.

    Ah, serendipshity!

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    April 22, 2013 at 1:20 pm

    @Dan:

    Yep, they did. It’s in the same article I linked to (here’s the exact page).

    So, yeah, there’s some weird shit going on when she writes about how the current president doesn’t match up to the movie that one ex starred in and the other wrote.

  83. 83.

    Mnemosyne

    April 22, 2013 at 1:22 pm

    @aimai:

    I freely admit, I never saw the movie, though I did occasionally watch “The West Wing,” which is essentially the TV version of the same story with slightly different characters.

    I was tempted because of one scene in the trailer (when Martin Sheen deadpans, “I don’t know, sir, but I can pass her a note in study hall”) but never got around to it. What the hell happened to Rob Reiner? He was so good for a while, but then I guess he started believing his own hype, because now he suuuucccckkkks as a director.

  84. 84.

    dmbeaster

    April 22, 2013 at 1:26 pm

    I was tempted to vote “Yes, mockable” since that is what we are supposed to think, but truthfully, I just dont give a shit.

    And anyway, its crueler to ignore prima donnas than to mock them.

  85. 85.

    Trollhattan

    April 22, 2013 at 1:34 pm

    Because she’s in the same kewhl kidz klub as herrs Bobo und Chunky Bobo, she needs to be publicly keelhauled along with the other two when emitting a particularly vile deuce. Let’s not forget that MoDo could be warming a chair for McMegan, given that Chunky Bobo won the competetion for the Bill Safire “Someone’s in the kitchen with Atta” chair, giving McMegan a sad.

  86. 86.

    Another Halocene Human

    April 22, 2013 at 1:42 pm

    @Anoniminous: The Greater New York/Teaneck, N.J. Maoist Suicide Squad is coming for you for that unwarranted and grievous insult!

  87. 87.

    ricky

    April 22, 2013 at 1:50 pm

    @joe in oklahoma:

    No. It is a better explanation of why the Senate did what it did than “Obama didn’t have a war room like the President played by my ex boyfriend in a movie written by another ex-boyfriend.”

    But thanks for demonstrating why blog commentary often apes op-ed columns in real life.

  88. 88.

    Elizabelle

    April 22, 2013 at 1:52 pm

    @gorram:

    Agreed.

    @Amir Khalid:

    And bodoh being Malay for “stupid.” Perfect. Just perfect.

    I can hear Charles Pierce and driftglass laughing now. (The intersection of “Bobo” and “d’oh!” and MoDo. What’s not to like?)

  89. 89.

    Haydnseek

    April 22, 2013 at 2:03 pm

    Did you vote “Don’t Give A Shit” and then post a comment? What is the sound of one hand clapping?

  90. 90.

    ricky

    April 22, 2013 at 2:06 pm

    If seeking a Presidential action model based on film, why go for a bush league writer/director’s work? Why not suggest Obama call upon the Martian Ambassador to address Congress as the President in cinematic genius Tim Burton’s film did.

  91. 91.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 2:09 pm

    @joe in oklahoma:

    His agenda IS moving forward. You are just impatient. You bite on every short term tactic as the final outcome instead of what ends up happening. I heard “Obama needs the bully pulpit” till I was ready to puke all of his first term. I heard how he needed to do more for his agenda all during the time he whipped Romney’s ass door to door AND with state of the art IT. I heard and saw the American people fully “get it”. I see the people that he is bringing to his side — the small numbers of “reasonable” Republicans on gun control — as well as those suburban Newton folks who represent so much of what we value in this country.

    HE IS setting it up. Take your eyes off of the end of your nose. Pay attention to the whole chessboard AND to the moves his opponents have (or don’t). They are trapped. But importantly — VERY importantly — it is up to US CITIZENS to make the political coup d’gras. He can’t do that. Only WE can.

  92. 92.

    Ted & Hellen

    April 22, 2013 at 2:16 pm

    It is clear as day to an observer that to the Obots in this thread the most important element in american politics, to be protected at all and any costs, above progressive/liberal ideals/goals and event he country itself, is Barack Obama’s political career and reputation.

    And of course by extension, the tender fee fees and sense of tribal inclusion so preciousssssssssss to these same Bots.

    MD is a douche and pundit hack. BO is a corporatist tool and political hack. Both of these things are true, neither exclude the other.

  93. 93.

    Cassidy

    April 22, 2013 at 2:19 pm

    @Elie: I have lost patience with trying to explain that to these buffoons.

  94. 94.

    Ridnik Chrome

    April 22, 2013 at 2:21 pm

    Not many people know this, but Maureen Dowd’s columns are all randomly generated by a computer program. They call it Quasi-MoDo.

    (rimshot)

    Thanks, ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be here all week…

  95. 95.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 2:26 pm

    @Cassidy:

    Why do you think its such a hard thing? Ok, maybe the first one or two times, you can see how folks wouldnt see or get it. But this late? He runs a very outwardly subtle but very strong game. He is a very rough player and he plays for keeps. Ask Romney. They beat the stuffing out of him all damned summer and Romney still thought he was going to win — even with two black eyes and his arm in a sling. Same issue on the left… If Obama moves strongly to the left, he vacates the center for the Rs. Why would he do that? The best win would be for the right wingers to become more moderate and agree with HIM, not to throw them a life line by ceding them the center!

    Jeez, I wish I could sell some of these folks some real estate…

  96. 96.

    Paul in KY

    April 22, 2013 at 2:32 pm

    @Elie: Some of the states they are from, it would be hard for their poll numbers to tank to the point a Democrat could win.

    Leaving aside murdering someone, dead girl/live boy in bed, etc.

  97. 97.

    Mnemosyne

    April 22, 2013 at 2:42 pm

    @Elie:

    What’s funny is that the people complaining about Obama failing to get gun control legislation passed are, for the most part, the same people who claimed that they would have been perfectly happy for health insurance reform to fail as long as Obama tried.

    Predictably, once a piece of legislation fails, the cry from those people isn’t, “At least he tried!” It’s, “But he failed!”

  98. 98.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 2:47 pm

    @Paul in KY:

    I hear you. That said, these are not fixed in stone. We have to start making the change locally to change the dynamics on who represent a given district in a state. Being resistive and obviously supporting constituencies that are unpopular will not win for them long term. You don’t build your brand doing that, even if you can hang on to the bleeding edge for a time. A party that represents rich people and represses women does not have a good brand.

    Yes, a willfull minority can slow things done for a while… but not forever. If some of these states can flip a Governorship or their legislatures, we can move this around a bit.

  99. 99.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 2:56 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    We did not get the gun legislation passed – true. But, we all know why, right? Everyone knows who the gun manufacturers own. Before, it was just a general term “the gun lobby”, but now everyone knows who specifically voted for or against it. Next steps are specific, local strategies. That is when contributions and the local snakey stuff comes out. Who had additions to their homes paid for some gun manufacturer — junkets and such. Highly motivated opposition can really get its hands on you locally. And there should be plenty of money too. And what is an additional blessing, the same anti-woman, racist, anti-immigrant assholes are the same ones supported by the NRA and its ilk, so setting them up with anti NRA money is real nice. A two or three fer is always a good thing. I’m sure that they didn’t see that initially, but they will…

  100. 100.

    brantl

    April 22, 2013 at 3:03 pm

    I don’t see the point of reading columns from people who couldn’t find their own asses with both hands.

  101. 101.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 3:04 pm

    @brantl:

    Don’t you ever read the funnies?

  102. 102.

    Elizabelle

    April 22, 2013 at 3:18 pm

    @Elie:

    Incisive comment (re comment 24 and your follow ups).

    Bookmarked this thread because I think you’re on to something, and expressed it very, very well.

    If you ever have a blog, I am there.

  103. 103.

    BruceFromOhio

    April 22, 2013 at 3:19 pm

    As of 3:18pm ET, “I don’t give it a shit” exceeds the other two options combined.

    Stick a fork in it, looks to be done.

  104. 104.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 3:45 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Thanks for your kind words…

  105. 105.

    Elie

    April 22, 2013 at 3:47 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Actually, I take no credit. I have just re-iterated what many many people have said over and over — many people here. I actually just re-stated what has already been said.

  106. 106.

    TG Chicago

    April 22, 2013 at 5:10 pm

    @ricky: Thanks for sharing that. Excellent point. All the Senator-wrangling in the world wouldn’t have made this into a law with the House as fanatical as it is.

  107. 107.

    Hattie

    April 22, 2013 at 6:35 pm

    Well, we can’t all be David Brooks or Ross Doodad. And she has icky lady parts, too.

  108. 108.

    Anna in PDX

    April 22, 2013 at 7:38 pm

    @WereBear: Whereas if we do mock her, the NYT will get religion and start objectively covering news and promoting fact based editorial and opinion writers.

  109. 109.

    Keith G

    April 22, 2013 at 8:07 pm

    @Amir Khalid: She actually has written columns that have strongly supported this president. Nobody, no one person, gets it all right or all wrong.

    I tend to think that writing this column is not in her top 10 list of things she actually cares about, so she seems to really just be phoning it in – writing stuff with broad strokes and very little serious thought.

  110. 110.

    Keith G

    April 22, 2013 at 8:18 pm

    @Ted & Hellen:

    BO is a corporatist tool and political hack

    Too simplistic to be a workable theory.

    He does have some interesting blind spots and can make initial choices that are a be a bit puzzling. That said, I don’t think his weaknesses (some troubling) fall under the “hack” rubric.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - Christopher Mathews - Iceland: Season's Fleeting 3
Image by Christopher Mathews (6/13/25)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

We did it!

We raised the 25,000 for The Civics Center, and with the external matches, that gives them $60,000 for this Spring effort!

You guys rock!

Recent Comments

  • eclare on Late Night Open Threads (Jun 14, 2025 @ 4:10am)
  • Nettoyeur on Late Night Open Threads (Jun 14, 2025 @ 3:55am)
  • Jay on Open Thread: Tracking the Protests (Jun 14, 2025 @ 3:44am)
  • eclare on Here I Am Again, With Another Positive Message (Jun 14, 2025 @ 3:30am)
  • opiejeanne on Open Thread: Tracking the Protests (Jun 14, 2025 @ 3:29am)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!