Given what Dowd normally does to people (leaves them a pile of smoldering rubble), Obama actually got off pretty lightly.  And given the glowing articles Frank Rich and Bob Herbert have written, he should no complaints about the treatment the NYT Op Ed page has given him. 

 

Dowd also makes some VERY good points that he would be wise to heed, like this:

He is backed up by a strong, smart wife and a professional campaign team, but he doesn’t have a do-whatever-it-takes family firm with contract killers and debt collectors, like Bush Inc. and Clinton Inc.

And this:

He sounded self-consciously pristine at times, as if he was too refined for the muck of politics. That’s not how you beat anybody but Alan Keyes.

And this:

Using the dreaded third person that some candidates slip into, he told the press that one of their favorite narratives boiled down to “Obama has pretty good style, he can deliver a pretty good speech, but he seems to prioritize rhetoric over substance.”

And this:

He doesn’t lack confidence, but he’s so hung up on being seen as thoughtful that he sometimes comes across as too emotionally detached and cerebral with crowds yearning for an electric, visceral connection. J.F.K. mixed cool with fire.

For a man who couldn’t wait to inject himself into the national arena, and who has spent so much time writing books about himself, the senator is oddly put off by press inquisitiveness.

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February 14, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

Obama, Legally Blonde?

By MAUREEN DOWD

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/opinion/14dowd.html

IOWA FALLS

Barack Obama looked as if he needed a smoke and he needed it bad.

Everyone knows you’re not supposed to make two big changes at once. But Michelle Obama’s price for letting her husband run was that he quit.

So there he was, trying to meet the deep, inexhaustible needs of both Iowa activists and the global press behemoth on his first swing across the state, while giving up cigarettes.

He was a tad testy.