In her NY piece, "Monster Mash," M.Dowd criticizes Obama, saying, "You can’t be elected president unless you prove you’re tough." And for M.Dowd, this means dishing the dirt, going as negative as Hillary, putting aside Hope for Dope.
M.Dowd just doesn't get it. Americans are tired of this 'more-of-the-same.' It's the reason why for the past presidential and congressional contests, turnout has been poor, people's interest nonexistent, people's energies' extinguished. And can you blame them? What was available then? Men and women who have their souls stripped and replaced with cue cards, polls, focus groups, political strategizing, half-truths, and outright lies. The only ones who voted were those who hoped for the best but only got the worse.
So here comes Obama with a new way of doing things: why not let the people be the guide for once. Why not let the people run the campaign, manage the door to door, fill up the caucuses? Why not let the people have a hand in the policies, a hand in deciding how they want the next president affect their lives.
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It may not be the same rough-and-tumble politique she's used to but it is effective. People who never voted before actually feel their voices are being heard, their actions have an effect. They see themselves as part of the campaign instead of just a tool to be manipulated.
And so the old guard (M.Dowd revealing she's one of them) pushed back. They dished out the name-calling, invented innuendos, quipped questionable questions, and fabricated fantasy scenarios that they sold as reality. And after Limbaugh-led Repubs voted Hillary in Ohio and Texas (which by the way Obama won delegate-wise) to give McCain an easier, more-of-the-same target, they (M.Dowd being one of them) pounced saying that Obama lost because his methods were wrong (it was too G-rated--too General Patronage instead of "R"estricted to tried-and-true-trite), that letting people in was going to land him out.
Well, don't you guys and gals let "trapos" (traditional politcians) bring us back down to their level. They've had their way for years and all they've done is brought this country down to the mud. It's time for us to say "'NUFF IS 'NUFF!" Telling 'em: We've seen what your kind can do. We've seen your ways. And it isn't for us. We're not pigs. If you wanna wallow in the dirt, M.Dowd, fine. But do it in your corner of the pond. Don't spread it all over from sea to shining sea. Because the American Dream is alive in Mr. Obama. It's alive in everyone who's contributed, volunteered, gone door-to-door, and state-to-state. And it's wrong of you to try to kill it.
Remember M.Dowd that scene from "To Kill a Mockingbird" where Miss Maudie explained: "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
This movement by the people, for the people, to take back their country is in its infancy. They're like a little bird learning to fly. Shooting it down before it's had a chance to spread its wings with your pot-shot-filled-Cheney-shotgun is not only a sin, it's a travesty.
You're on the wrong side of this one, M.Dowd. It's time to admit that even the eminently intellectually-endowed M.Dowd can be wrong.