Morning Jolt - How Now, Down Dowd?

NRO Newsletters . . .

Morning Jolt

. . . with Jim Geraghty

June 4, 2012

In This Issue . . .

1. How Now, Down Dowd?

2. In the Name of Democracy, Wisconsin Democrats Will Hunt Down Nonvoters and Punish Them

3. Who Do We Root For in This One?

4. Addendum

Good Morning!

Here's your Monday Morning Jolt.

Jim

1. How Now, Down Dowd?

Upon hearing some buzz about Sunday's New York Times column from Maureen Dowd, one of the folks I follow on Twitter quipped, "I've never read a Maureen Dowd column in my life; I don't see why I should start now." And I understand the sentiment; Dowd was catty, predictable, shallow, quickly tiresome, and full of the cheapest of cheap-shots back when her schtick was fresher.

(I can hear it now: "Hey, she's a columnist who writes breezily and conversationally and uses a lot of pop culture references. I'm sensing some structural deficiencies in your glass house, pal.")

But since she's probably read often by a certain type of left-of-center, don't-bore-me-with-policy voter, she might be a useful indicator of changes in public mood. So when Dowd writes:

The president who started off with such dazzle now seems incapable of stimulating either the economy or the voters. His campaign is offering Obama 2012 car magnets for a donation of $10; cat collars reading "I Meow for Michelle" for $12; an Obama grill spatula for $40, and discounted hoodies and T-shirts. How the mighty have fallen. . . .

The legendary speaker who drew campaign crowds in the tens of thousands and inspired a dispirited nation ended up nonchalantly delegating to a pork-happy Congress, disdaining the bully pulpit, neglecting to do any L.B.J.-style grunt work with Congress and the American public, and ceding control of his narrative.

In some ways, he's still finding himself, too absorbed to see what's not working. But the White House is a very hard place to go on a vision quest, especially with a storm brewing.

Now, you know Dowd will vote for the guy . . . but if this is what his fans are saying . . . it's not that hard to imagine enthusiasm waning among Democrats compared to 2008.

Bryan Preston finds those closing words about a "vision quest" vaguely familiar, and remembers:

Didn't someone warn us in 2008 that it was a bad idea to turn the American presidency into a means of finding oneself?

As a matter of fact...

My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of "personal discovery." This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn't just need an organizer.

How must if feel for Maureen Dowd to realize that she is just now figuring out what Sarah Palin and millions of Americans figured out years ago?

Ed Driscoll finds Dowd, like most of Obama's true believers from last cycle, a bit slow on the uptake:

Wow, a Chicago machine hack politician with enough identity shifts and name changes to make Don Draper seem like a model citizen, who's chums with a former terrorist and a racist pastor right out of Tom Wolfe's Radical Chic and who nonchalantly admits to eating dogs in his(?) autobiography is a nihilist who's only in it for himself. Who saw that coming?

(Almost half the country, as it turns out. I suspect that number will "grow" even larger in the coming years, as former Obama voters in 2008 slowly begin to do a reverse Pauline Kael on the man: Barack Obama? Nobody I knew voted for him . . .)

Our old friend Mark Hemingway reads between the lines to see a bit of professional strategy on Dowd's part:

She too might be laying down a marker in the event that Obama loses. If Obama loses, she can point to this column in five months and say she saw it coming. Recall that Dowd largely made her bones as a columnist by jumping off of Clinton's ship ahead of many of his liberal defenders when he hit the shoals of scandal.

It's best not to extrapolate too much from a few examples, but it's fair to say that Washington insiders are reading the tea leaves and increasingly preparing for a Romney victory -- especially following Friday's bad economic news. The danger for Obama is that in political campaigns perception can quickly become reality. If influential liberals such as Dowd suddenly have no problem saying Obama appears to be in over his head, pretty soon everyone will be pointing out the obvious. Thus far, Obama's meteoric rise has been largely dependent on a press that went straight from beat sweeteners to beatification. If the press turns on the president, the Obama campaign may not know what to do.

2. In the Name of Democracy, Wisconsin Democrats Will Hunt Down Nonvoters and Punish Them

Saturday evening, our Robert Costa shared an unnerving tale from Walker volunteer John Larrabee, a 54-year-old truck driver:

What disturbs Larrabee the most, however, is a letter he recently found in his mailbox. It was paid for by the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund, a 527 group supported by union allies. It lists his neighbors and charts whether they voted in recent elections.

The chart shows the names of some of your neighbors, showing which have voted in the past. Look at the list below: are there neighbors on this list you know? Call them or knock on their door before Election Day, and ask them to vote on Tuesday, June 5th.

Of course, Larrabee knows that this is public information. But he and others at the Walker office say the next line is chilling, especially to neighbors who are conservative or apolitical.

After the June 5th election, public records will tell everyone who voted and who didn't.

Ann Althouse, who lives in Wisconsin, received the same:

I obscured names and addresses, but be assured, this was a list of real names and addresses of people who live near me, with the information about whether they voted in the last 2 elections. This is an effort to shame and pressure people about voting, and it is truly despicable. Your vote is private, you have a right not to vote, and anyone who tries to shame and an harass you about it is violating your privacy, and the assumption that I will become active in shaming and pressuring my neighbors is repugnant.

Not voting is a valid choice. If you don't have a preference in the election, don't vote. If you think no one deserves your vote, don't vote.

This may be the most disgusting thing I have ever received in the mail.

Who's behind it? Oh, you could guess, couldn't you?

If you received a card in the mail that listed your name, your neighbors' names and their recent voting records, you're not alone.

The cards prompted complaints from all over the state on Friday, said Reid Magney, spokesman for the state overnment Accountability Board.

Magney said it's legal to acquire and publish the information.

The state is required to sell a statewide list of voters and their voting histories to anyone who requests it, Magney said. The cost is $12,500.

Janesville resident Elizabeth Mullen said she and her husband were upset to receive the mailing.

"They just went and published my personal information to people I don't know without my permission," Mullen told The Gazette.

"I realize it's public record . . . but I found it too much of my personal information being out there," Mullen said.

The mailing includes a note to "Dear Registered Voter" which says, in part: "Look at the list below: Are there neighbors on this list you know? Call them or knock on their door before Election Day, and ask them to go vote on Tuesday, June 5. After the June 5th election, public records will tell everyone who voted and who didn't. Do your civic duty -- vote and remind your neighbors to vote."

The mailing goes on to list the recipient's name, address and whether he or she voted in November 2008 and November 2010. The same information is provided for 12 neighbors.

The information does not say -- and could not say -- how those people voted, of course.

"I'm all for getting out the vote, but I think that's too intrusive," Mullen said.

The Greater Wisconsin Political Fund apparently sent two mailings. The one Mullen received does not urge a vote for one party or the other.

Another version says: "Scott Walker won in 2010 because too many people stayed home! Two years ago, more than half a million Wisconsinites who supported Obama (in 2008) failed to vote in the 2010 election. And that's how Gov. Scott Walker got elected."

That article concludes, "The Greater Wisconsin Political Fund is an arm of the Greater Wisconsin Committee, which has been active in the state for many years, and is registered with the state, Magney said. The Madison-based organization, which often supports Democratic candidates, could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon. The voice mailbox of the executive director was full."

3. Who Do We Root For in This One?

Rumble at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!

Eric Holder, who heads Mr Obama's justice department, is said to have become "incensed" after being accused by David Axelrod of complaining publicly about political interference in his office.

"That's bull****," Mr Holder said in a confrontation after a cabinet meeting, according to author Daniel Klaidman. He writes: "The tw o men stood chest to chest. It was like a school yard fight".

The relatively mild-mannered Mr Axelrod is said to have told the attorney general: "Don't ever, ever accuse me of trying to interfere with the operations of the Justice Department", a taboo in US politics.

In 'Kill or Capture: The War on Terror and the Soul of the Obama Presidency', Klaidman discloses the struggles within Mr Obama's White House at it mounted its controversial campaign against al-Qaeda.

He writes that Mr Holder and Mr Axelrod were separated by Valerie Jarrett, a White House adviser and confidante to Mr Obama. Ms Jarrett "pushed her way between the two men, her sense of decorum disturbed, ordering them to 'take it out of the hallway'," says Klaidman.

Watch out, Mr. Attorney General. I hear these Chicago guys fight dirty.

But seriously . . . a political handler watching the moves of Eric Holder to make sure they're in Obama's best interest? Isn't that redundant?

4. Addendum

As a Peanuts fan, I loved this observation from Jeryl Bier on Barack Obama's "Great Pumpkin" moment.