Maureen Dowd on Hillary Clinton

[madinmaryland]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/opinion/02dowd.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

The Hillary Waltz

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: April 2, 2008

Democrats getting jittery about the alienating effects of the endless soap opera they call their campaign should buck up. These “hand-wringers,” as the Hillary strategist Harold Ickes calls them, are not seeing the larger picture.

Hillary is cruelly misunderstood, and she deserves more credit for her benevolence. Not only does she have a lot in common with Rocky, as she said Tuesday in Philadelphia, but she has a lot in common with another famous character — the Marschallin in Strauss’s bittersweet comic opera “Der Rosenkavalier.”

The Marschallin is a princess married to a Viennese field marshal who has a liaison dangereuse with a younger man, Count Octavian. Though she’s worried about her fleeting youth and the fickleness of men, she instructs the young man on the ways of love and then gracefully sets him free, allowing him to find happiness with young Sophie as a soaring waltz plays.

Whether or not she wins, Hillary has already given noble service as a sophisticated political tutor for Obama, providing her younger colleague with much-needed seasoning. Who else was going to toughen him up? Howard Dean? John Edwards? Dennis Kucinich?

..snip

[C_U_L8R]

1. The Rocky comparison just kills me.

Every Pennsylvanian threw up a little in embarrassment yesterday.


Today's Philly Metro

[PCIntern]

2. Yeah that wasn't great...

but you know how MoDo comes up with this crap:

"Let's see...google.com...hmmm...OK, 'older woman younger man opera'...

Der Rosenkavalier

Got it!!1 Great."


ridiculous comparison as well...takes all of 20 seconds to research her columns.

tomorrow:

"Hmmm...google.com...hmmm...OK, 'Man-hating, frustrated, snarky'.

Wow! My own name came up! Aren't I a celebrity!!!1"

[underpants]

5. That pretty much sums up her campaign-someone was real proud of themselves for coming up with that

the problem is that everyone else was either so busy thinking themselves soooo fabulous or no one dared mention that if you are going to evoke "RockY" don't put "art" anywhere near it


See Rocky is a tough working class guy. Bringing "art" into took all the air out of that balloon.

[splat]

3. But she calls Obama "effete" -- kiss of death a la Kerry

Hillary has clearly raised Obama’s consciousness about the importance of courting the ladies. Touring a manufacturing plant in Allentown, Pa., Tuesday, he was flirtatious, winking and grinning at the women working there, calling one “Sweetie,” telling another she was “beautiful,” and imitating his daughters’ dance moves by twirling around.

Later, at a Scranton town hall, he went up to Denise Mercuri, a pharmacist from Dunmore wearing a Hillary button. “What do I need to do? Do you want me on my knees?” he charmed, before promising: “I’ll give you a kiss.”

Obama has been less adept at absorbing the lesson of Hillary’s metamorphosis from entitled queen of the party to scrappy blue-collar mama. His strenuous and inadvertently hilarious efforts to woo working-class folk in Pennsylvania have only made him seem more effete. Keeping his tie firmly in place, he genteelly sipped his pint of Yuengling beer at Sharky’s sports cafe in Latrobe and bowled badly in Altoona. Challenging Obama to a bowl-off, Hillary kindly offered to “spot him two frames.”

At the Wilbur chocolate shop in Lititz Monday, he spent most of his time skittering away from chocolate goodies, as though he were a starlet obsessing on a svelte waistline.

[Warpy]

4. She's also awakened a new generation of women

to the deeply ingrained misogyny in this culture. For that, we can all be grateful.

[Demeter]

6. Maureen, Maureen, Maureen!

Hillary is merely the setup. She has, through her tawdry, embarrassing campaign, permitted Obama to show us what he's got. And the man is loaded with the features we want in a leader!

She didn't TEACH him anything, except perhaps by giving multiple examples of what NOT to do!

And by the way, Mo, the Marschallin did not have a happy ending@