MAUREEN DOWD NEEDS TO HAVE A WORD WITH MAUREEN DOWD

Maureewn Dowd, in her latest column:

Obama did not like persuading people to do what they didn’t want to do. And that is the definition of politics. He wanted them simply to do what he had ascertained to be right.

Maureen Dowd, literally four paragraphs later:

Obama was well aware during the campaign that his chosen heir sometimes seemed to be phoning it in. Campaigning together in Charlotte, he was nonplused to find out that Hillary had quickly slipped out of a barbecue joint where they had stopped to get food and greet people, while the president was left on his own, shaking every hand.

Afterward he told his aides: “Most of the folks in these places have been watching Fox News and think I’m the Antichrist. But if you show up, shake their hand, and look them in the eye, it’s harder for them to turn you into a caricature. You might even pick up a few votes.”

Do I need to point that staying to shake hands at a campaign appearance in less-than-friendly territory was, precisely, an Obama attempt at "persuading people to do what they didn’t want to do"? This, says Dowd, "is the definition of politics," and Obama, she says, refused to do -- except when he did do it, which she mentions only because the anecdote is a stick she can use to beat someone she hates even more than she hates Obama, Hillary Clinton.

Scott Lemieux has more on the awfulness of this column.