Whine and Cheese

No Ice Cream, Senator?
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: July 13, 2008

Maureen Dowd unleashes one of her most tortured metaphors in a long time as she goes horticultural on Obama:

Barack Obama may make it to the Rose Garden, but he’ll still be an orchid. For all his attempts to act like a sturdy American perennial, he’s a genuine hothouse flower, and everything he is and does is cultivated.

The Democrats are known as the Mommy Party, but Obama is bucking for Father Of The Year.

He has been trying of late to show off his dad cred — both as a potentially strong dad for the country and as a good dad to his daughters.

In the wake of blowback from his family interview, Obama is indulging in the three re's.

Refining the Iraq stance was fine. Reconsidering the eavesdropping position was sketchy. But he definitely went one “re” too far when he appeared on all three morning shows and revisited his decision to allow his daughters to be interviewed on “Access Hollywood.”

That footage was originally an "exclusive" on Wonkette, but can be seen below:



Dowd gets in a very subtle dig at the vapidness of the interview by saying this:

Maria Menounos, whose questions were as bubbly as her Pantene shampoo commercials, asked Michelle, “What is the most recent romantic thing you’ve done for him?”

She seems to be saying that real reporters don't shill for product. But then real politicians don't pimp their daughters. Maureen puts it more delicately and also gets in an Alliteration Alert®:

He may not have realized it while they were miking Malia and lighting the kids, but it clearly hit him midway through the interview.

And the embarrassing part according to Dowd is further revelations about his rather fussy eating habits. Maureen has been harping on his very non-Joe Voter diet for months, but now out of the mouths of babes, we know that Obama may be as all-American as apple pie, but don't ask him if he wants it ala mode.

He looked frustrated when Sasha revealed that “my dad doesn’t like sweets” and that he preferred “minty gum” to bubble gum. She then began singsonging “Everybody should like ice cream” before pointing a finger at the person who doesn’t: “Except Daddy!”

Which gives Dowd one more alliteration (finding the third is left to the reader as an exercise).

Whether Obama was irritated that he had slipped up and exposed his daughters or was annoyed that his kids were exposing more delicious details about his finicky, abstemious tastes, we’ll never know.

But to Maureen, the problem wasn't the slip-up, but the hand wringing. And she manages to sneak in five more re's.

While it’s a good idea not to repeat the experience, it was overkill for Obama to rebuke himself and recant his decision on the morning shows — right in the midst of other repositioning that spurred a harsh reaction among many supporters.

{snip}

The self-pitying Bill and the self-flagellating Barack both need to take a cue from the Obama girls.

Asked by Ms. Menounos, “What could you guys do that Mommy and Daddy would get really mad at?” Malia and Sasha replied in unison: “Whining.”

But the real question for those that want to label Obama an out-of-touch elitist is what type of brie does he want with that whine?