Obama, Legally Blonde? (Maureen Dowd Takes off the Gloves for Hillary)

NY Times Select (subscription only) ^ | 2.14.07 | Maureen Dowd

[meg88]

Barack Obama looked as if he needed a smoke and he needed it bad.

So there he was, trying to meet the deep, inexhaustible needs of both Iowa activists and the global press behemoth on his first swing across the state, while giving up cigarettes.

He was a tad testy.

“I’ve been chewing Nicorette all day long,” he told reporters at a press conference in Ames on Sunday, where he was getting irritated at suggestions that he lacked substance and at the specter of his vanishing privacy.

The Illinois senator didn’t have on an implacable mask of amiability, as Hillary did in Iowa. He didn’t look happily in his element, like Bill Clinton.

Senator Obama’s body language was loose — and he’s so slender his wedding band looked as if it was slipping off — but there was a wariness in his dark eyes.

He is backed up by a strong, smart wife and a professional campaign team, but he doesn’t have a do-whatever-it-takes family firm with contract killers and debt collectors, like Bush Inc. and Clinton Inc.

He sounded self-consciously pristine at times, as if he was too refined for the muck of politics.

After talking to high school journalists, he took a sniffy shot at the loutish reporters who were merely whispering where’s the beef: “Take some notes, guys, that’s how it’s done.”

He doesn’t lack confidence, but he’s so hung up on being seen as thoughtful that he sometimes comes across as too emotionally detached and cerebral with crowds yearning for an electric, visceral connection. J.F.K. mixed cool with fire.

For a man who couldn’t wait to inject himself into the national arena, and who has spent so much time writing books about himself, the senator is oddly put off by press inquisitiveness.

[smonk]

wow. if you are a democrat, and maureen doesn't like you, you have some real problems on your hands.

[Muzzle_em]

"who has spent so much time writing books about himself, the senator is oddly put off by press inquisitiveness"

Ah, he and Hillary DO have something in common.