In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Showtime at the Apollo" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/opinion/sunday/dowd-showtime-at-the-apollo.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss), Dowd savages the president and his wife, leaving even me, a combat veteran, grimacing. Ms. Dowd informs her readership:
"The man who became famous with a speech declaring that we were one America, not opposing teams of red and blue states, presides over an America more riven by blue and red than ever.
The man who came to Washington on a wave of euphoria has had a presidency with all the joy of a root canal, dragged down by W.’s recklessness and his own inability to read America’s panic and its thirst for a strong leader.
. . . .
Despite what his rivals say, the president and the first lady do believe in American exceptionalism — their own, and they feel overassaulted and underappreciated.
We disappointed them."
Ouch!
I suppose this is one instance where I feel compelled to go to bat for the president. Like Obama, I don't go to many parties. Mix with journalists? Waterboard me instead. Invite Jimmy Carter or the Clintons to dinner? Go ahead and shoot me.
Dowd asks, "Who knew, in the exuberance of 2008, that America was electing an introvert?" Actually, if you were to rip away the glitzy Madison Avenue packaging, the narcissism was not far beneath the wrapping paper. Moreover, the arrogance and introversion would all be forgiven if the president had delivered, but hope has gone by the wayside.
Dowd concludes her opinion piece by inquiring:
"Could 2012, remarkably, be a race between two powerful victims yearning to be lonely at the top?"
"Remarkably"? Perhaps "abominably," "bitterly," "bleakly," "deplorably," "distressingly," "grievously," "lamentably," "pathetically," "ruefully," "woefully," or "wretchedly"; however, there would be nothing "remarkable" whatsoever about a contest between Obama and Gingrich.
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