Today's column by Maureen Dowd in the NY Times is entitled "Going Mad in Herds". the title refers to the increase in the number of Americans who identify Obama as a Muslim; the number went from 12% when he ran for president to 18% in the latest poll. According to MoDo, that means that the country is going crazy. Actually, I think it is MoDo who is going crazy. First, let's look at her contention: the Pew Research poll in question has a margin of error of +/- 3%. That means that in 2008, the number who thought Obama was Muslim was between 9 and 15%. In the Latest poll, that number is between 15 and 21%. In other words, it well may be that the number has not changed at all, but has stayed at 15% even according to the poll itself. A difference that is not even statistically significant is hardly the reason to call the country mad. Beyond that a change of a few percent either way is not a big deal. Obama has not been overt in his Christianity. I cannot recall any image of him leaving or entering church. I cannot recall him ever mentioning his Christian beliefs since he has been president. That is not to say that it has not happened, but events of that sort, if they occurred, have not been publicized. In a country used to presidents who clearly announce their Christianity, it is no surprise that Obama's failure to do so lead some to think he is not a Christian.
The truth is that MoDo is actually lamenting the demise of the false image of Obama that was created by the media and his campaign in 2008. Indeed, she admits this much when she says:
"Obama is the victim of the elevated expectations he so skillfully created in 2008.
He came as a redeemer and then — tied up in W.’s Gordian knots, dragged down by an economy leeched by wars and Wall Street charlatans — didn’t redeem. And nothing bums out a nation that blows with the wind like a self-appointed messiah who disappoints."
Where she goes wrong is her line that the nation "blows with the wind". The truth is that nothing bothers any nation like someone who falsely claims certain talents and views only to be found out as a faker. It may sound like Sean Hannity doing one of his lists, but here is the litany: Obama promised to be post-racial; he is not. Rather he is the most intensely racial president since Woodrow Wilson. Obama promised to be post-partisan; he is not. There has been less bipartisanship in this administration than in any I can remember, and Obama set the tone. In his first moves as president, Obama had the stimulus bill drafted by congressional Democrats with no input allowed from the Republicans. Then he again froze the Republicans out of the budget process. That was followed by freezing the Republicans out of the healthcare negotiations in the House. In response, the Republicans voted against the bills. since then, the partisan wrangling has only gotten worse. Obama promised that he would close Guantanamo; it is still open. This is something that everyone knows he could do. He just has not done it. Obama promised that the stimulus bill would keep unemployment below 8%; we went to 10% insteaad and millions lost their jobs. Obama promised that he would end "too big to fail" and then signed into law a bill that enshrines the concept into the future. He promised that he would bring a new life to dealings with Iran; there would be negotiations with no preconditions. The Iranians are still laughing at that one and at him. he promised that he would stand with the Israelis as an ally; then he did everything he could to gin up confrontations with that country. He promised that he would pursue the Afghan war with great vigor. Then he tried to prevent a request for more troops from being made and sat on the decision about those troops for nearly half a year before finally going along with most of it. The list goes on, but the point is that obama revealed himself to be an inexperienced, tone deaf ideologue who seems to live in a fantasy world. He has no successes. Even his great legislative accomplishments like obamacare are greatly hated by the people.
This truth about Obama seems to be more than MoDo can stand. She realizes that the blame for much of the failure is Obama's but she cannot bring herself to accept that she was part of the group that brought this loser into power. Instead she has to castigate the American people as crazy to deal with her own pain and denial. The NY Times should have recognized this and not run the column. No one needs to see MoDo psycholgical deterioration. She should be spared that embarrassment.
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