Maureen Dowd, "Playing Now: Hail to Us Chiefs": Yup, She's Pissed at the President

Maureen Dowd is perhaps most alluring when vexed.

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Playing Now: Hail to Us Chiefs" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/opinion/sunday/dowd-playing-now-hail-to-us-chiefs.html), Dowd bristles at the president's claim that "the election four years ago wasn't about me," and provides a laundry list of grievances involving Obama's first term failures which should now be attributed to those who elected him. Among Dowd's barbs:

• "We never should have let the Congressional Democrats run wild with their stimulus spending on pork that didn’t even create the right kinds of jobs."
• "We should have listened to Joe Biden instead of getting rolled by the generals on Afghanistan."
• "Maybe we relied too much on Valerie Jarrett, a k a the Night Stalker and Keeper of the Essence."

Stimulus spending? She's right. US debt has gone up by more than $5 trillion since Obama took office, and it now stands at over $16 trillion with no end in sight.

And don't tell me Obama saved the auto industry. GM is again facing bankruptcy.

What has Obama's stimulus brought us? As observed by The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/us-adds-96000-jobs-in-august-unemployment-rate-drops-to-81-percent/2012/09/07/30374bfa-f8e9-11e1-8398-0327ab83ab91_story.html?hpid=z1):

"The unemployment rate declined in August to 8.1 percent, a drop that occurred largely because 368,000 people left the labor force. The Labor Department counts only those actively seeking a job as unemployed.

The percentage of people older than 16 in the workforce reached its lowest level since 1981, according to the Labor Department. Nearly 70 percent of men were working or looking for a job — the lowest percentage since the government began tracking the statistic in 1948."

The war in Afghanistan? Dowd is right again. Obama can only blame himself for escalating this tragic involvement, which has cost the lives of hundreds of American soldiers at a price of over $8 billion per month.

Valerie Jarrett? I find it terrifying that a person with so few qualifications, other than her ability to find favor with Barack and Michelle (both of whom are also without economic or foreign policy qualifications), has been entrusted with shaping the fate of the free world.

You want to know why Hillary decided to visit East Timor, population one million, rather than attend the convention? Ask Rahm Emanuel and William Daley. Obviously, Hillary is even angrier than Maureen.

[Jarrett is facetiously known as the "Night Stalker" owing to her habit of tailing after Obama on his way back from the West Wing to the White House residence. Yes, it's all about access to the king and the wielding of power. Winter is coming.]