A Woman on the Ticket

To my great surprise, I read a tweet from Hillary Clinton that was both accurate and funny.  Worth reposting here:

How does the Times even print such a story?  No one said, "Gee, Maureen, what about Hillary?"  Nope.  It is this kind of high quality journalism that allows people to embrace Trump's claims that the news is fake.

On the other hand, Dowd's statement is absolutely correct.  It is framed as a male nominee choosing a female VP.  The only other male nominee to choose a female VP was McCain, but he was Republican (nominally).  In her article, Dowd does mention Hillary's run and is clearly opining about the failure of the Democrats to pick another woman for the VP spot.  She reports that Ferraro was treated poorly by the culture of the time and that the landslide loss may have contributed to Democrats avoiding female VP candidates since.  Really, it's a perfectly reasonable opinion article.  The blame goes to the @nytopinion tweet for failing to make that obvious.

A Tale of Two Mothers

On April 4, 2004, Specialist Casey Sheehan of the US Army volunteered for a quick reaction force to rescue American Troops in Iraq.  He was killed during this action.  His mother, Cindy Sheehan, blamed President George W. Bush for his death.  Through the rest of his presidency, the activities of Cindy Sheehan were reported regularly: she spent a month camping outside Bush's Crawford ranch, she visited Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, she appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews, she protested at the State of the Union.  The death of her son conferred 'absolute moral authority' to Cindy Sheehan, so said Maureen Dowd.

On September 11, 2012, US Foreign Service IM Officer Sean Smith was killed in Benghazi, Libya.  The attack was initially described as a riot gone out of control in reaction to an internet video.  Latter information, including emails from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, demonstrated that the video had never been the cause.  Pat Smith, Sean's mother, blames Hillary for her son's death.  However, whereas Cindy Sheehan was celebrated by the media, Pat Smith has been fact checked and even had Nathaniel Friedman of GQ claim he "would like to beat her to death."

 

What should be obvious is that the totally unbiased media promoted a grieving mother who set out to attack a Republican but attacked a grieving mother who set out to attack a Democrat.  No bias at all.

Et Tu, Maureen?

Maureen Dowd, a leftist stalwart, has an op-ed in which she opines about the shady dealings of Hillary Clinton that are contaminating everyone who comes in contact: FBI Director Comey who recommended against indictment while offering a very strong indictment during his testimony to Congress, AG Loretta Lynch who regretted her ill-considered meeting on the Phoenix tarmac with Bill Clinton only moments after he left the plane, and President Obama who was endorsing Hillary precisely when Comey was exposing her 'extreme carelessness.'  The sheer volume and repetition of Clinton scandals through the years has worn down even Dowd's willingness to view it as the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy or only an 'appearance' of impropriety.  Though she doesn't directly say it, Dowd certainly paints a picture of 'Crooked Hillary.'  And despite it all, she offers a resigned sigh that it is probably better to have an ethically bankrupt Hillary than Trump.  Now there's an endorsement for you.