Dowd: ANOTHER "Hillary Sucks" Column

Maureen Dowd has been critical of Barack Obama, but she's relentless when it comes to bashing Hillary Clinton.

Today, she writes another installment, "Begrudging His Bedazzling."

She writes:

David Brody, the Christian Broadcasting Network correspondent whose interview with Hillary aired Tuesday, said [Senator Clinton] seemed “dumbfounded” by the Obama sensation.

She has been so discombobulated that she has ignored some truisms of politics that her husband understands well: Sunny beats gloomy. Consistency beats flipping. Bedazzling beats begrudging. Confidence beats whining.

Those aren't just truisms of politics. They're truisms of life.

If only Dowd would quit ignoring those truisms when she writes her columns.

...The fact that Obama is exceptionally easy in his skin has made Hillary almost jump out of hers. She can’t turn on her own charm and wit because she can’t get beyond what she sees as the deep injustice of Obama not waiting his turn. Her sunshine-colored jackets on the trail hardly disguise the fact that she’s pea-green with envy.

After saying she found her “voice” in New Hampshire, she has turned into Sybil. We’ve had Experienced Hillary, Soft Hillary, Hard Hillary, Misty Hillary, Sarcastic Hillary, Joined-at-the-Hip-to-Bill Hillary, Her-Own-Person-Who-Just-Happens-to-Be-Married-to-a-Former-President Hillary, It’s-My-Turn Hillary, Cuddly Hillary, Let’s-Get-Down-in-the-Dirt-and-Fight-Like-Dogs Hillary.

Just as in the White House, when her cascading images and hairstyles became dizzying and unsettling, suggesting that the first lady woke up every day struggling to create a persona, now she seems to think there is a political solution to her problem. If she can only change this or that about her persona, or tear down this or that about Obama’s. But the whirlwind of changes and charges gets wearing.

By threatening to throw the kitchen sink at Obama, the Clinton campaign simply confirmed the fact that they might be going down the drain.

Hillary and her aides urged reporters to learn from the “Saturday Night Live” skit about journalists having crushes on Obama.

“Maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow,” she said tartly in the debate here Tuesday night. She peevishly and pointlessly complained about getting the first question too often, implying that the moderators of MSNBC — a channel her campaign has complained has been sexist — are giving Obama an easy ride.

Beating on the press is the lamest thing you can do. It is only because of the utter open-mindedness of the press that Hillary can lose 11 contests in a row and still be treated as a contender.

Oh, good grief.

Did you find Hillary's changing hairstyles when she was first lady to be "dizzying and unsettling"?

I didn't. I see no connection between her hair in the 1990s and her 2008 presidential campaign.

I don't agree with Dowd that Hillary is struggling to find a persona. She knows herself and she's comfortable in her own skin.

Hillary's problems aren't about some weird insecurities and an unstable image. They stem from her struggle to find a way to stop the erosion of support she has experienced since the Obama-mania fad took hold. Rather than being herself, she's taking wild stabs at trying to be what voters want. That's her mistake. Rather than remaining calm, she panicked when Obama surged.

Moreover, "beating on the press" is NOT the "lamest thing you can do," as Dowd suggests. Her complaints about the press have been ineffective, but they also have been valid. I can imagine her frustration.

Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson received unfavorable press. As a result, their campaigns fizzled. That doesn't mean they weren't qualified. They were superior candidates compared to John McCain, but they couldn't undo the damage done by a hostile or disinterested press.

The lamest thing Dowd can do is say that Hillary is still considered a contender because of the "utter open-mindedness of the press."

What a joke!

Hillary is still a contender based on the delegate count, not because the press is open-minded. Unreal.