Maureen Dowd in the New York Times this morning outdid herself. Her columns are piercing, often smart-alecky, right to the point – great analogies. She liked / didn’t like Barack Obama while he was running. Starting out calling him Obambi, and often thought he was off track during the campaign.
She likes him better now that he’s president, and this morning really approves of him – although she’s quick to quote an author who thinks we won’t be exiting Iraq anytime time, and certainly won’t be leaving it better than we found it. But she definitely likes the President now.
She talks about Barack’s Sisyphean task of pushing the boulder of grief Bush left behind up the hill, while Bush rides his bike and gives dinner parties. The President call Bush on Friday before the speech at Camp LeJeune – Mission Relinquished, Maureen called it. She talked about Barack’s analogy of turning a tanker around to get us going in a better direction – and pointed out that he had turned Bush into the Exxon Valdez.
Another Dowd image: Professor Obama striding to the blackboard to erase everything Bush stood for. And then the unforgettable idea: Obama as Mr. Spock, with his logic and detachment, on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. “Any mere mortal…” facing the President’s tasks, she says, ” would probably have tears running down his face.”