Maureen Dowd Becomes Fictional Actor In Obama Smear

A comically absurd Barack Obama smear email is making the rounds right now involving a fabricated column by famed New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. The email, presented as a June 29 op-ed (replete with The Times' font, layout, and Dowd byline) presents the "shocking" revelation that Obama's prodigious Internet fundraising apparatus is really driven by wealthy financiers from -- you guessed it -- "Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries."

Taking her cues from anonymous Obama campaign "Internet geeks," the fictional Dowd column reads:

"What I learned from this insider was shocking but I guess we shouldn't be surprised that when it comes to fund raising there simply are no rules that can't be broken and no ethics that prevail. [...]

"I guess we should have been somewhat suspicious when the numbers started to come out. We were told (no proof offered) that the Obama internet contributions were from $10.00 to $25.00 or so.

"If the $200,000,000 is right, and the average contribution was $15.00, that would mean over 13 million individuals made contributions? That would also be 13 million contributions would need to be processed. How did all that happen?"

Where to begin? For starters, the average Obama contribution has been around $100, not $15. The campaign, by law, must disclose all donors who have given over $200. And, most obviously, a review of the paper of record shows that Dowd's column on June 29 was not on Obama fundraising but rather Hillary Clinton supporters.

Dowd herself found the email an exercise in absurdity, not to mention -- quite possibly -- the first time she's been indirectly involved in a smear campaign.

"The line about it being the 'most shocking revelation,' I don't think I've ever said those words, except in a satire. Also, it is about money, which I never write about," she told the Huffington Post. "Sometime you try and protest things you hear about, but sometimes it's just not worth it... It is hard to track down and control these things, and anyone who reads my column knows that this wasn't me. I got to the second line and I knew it wasn't me."

The Obama campaign, as is now its practice, addressed the fake Dowd column in a post today on its website, Fight the Smears. But sometimes it's worth noting just how outrageous and offensive -- both to Obama and the public's intelligence -- these attacks can be.

Comments

[huntergeo]

Yeah, she's dead to me too, politically. She's nonetheless smokin' hot, and she has a very sharp pen. She would never have written that bumbling first passage, but the unwashed masses will be fooled on the internet for generations to come. Tag me as elitist.

[bbbear]

I guess exposing Tim Russert is off limits here:
http://makethemaccountable.com/podvin/media/020109_Russert.htm

[protagonia]

The worse these attacks get, the more scared the crooked right is.

Simple as that.

Good. They should be scared. They are criminals.

Nothing eviscerates vermin like a little daylight.

[Brettster]

Why are these aggressive lie and slander campaigns only on the right? Nobody ever mentions it, but every one of these outrageous chain emails that flagrantly lie to people are ALWAYS promoting conservative, republican causes. I've never seen one that was for Democrats. I'm not advocating it, it's just interesting. It really does seem like the right wing in this country is just hellbent on evil.

[wanked]

ya think?

[mikelartist]

Smacks of desperation that some GOP idiots would resort to this level of deceit. Why are over 95% of the emails smears and chain mails targeting Democrats and created by Republicans? Are the GOP voters that easily duped?

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/personalities/chain-email/

[MemphisBuffalo]

This woman is not just hot she is smokin hot.

[whiteboyblues]

Maureen Dowd is dead to me

[Easttexas82]

I was shown an "email" not long after the Texas primary after some of my wife's relatives were horrified to find out I had voted for Obama. It was from someone doing missionary work in Africa who had evidence that Obama was funding rebels in Kenya. I wrote about it in a comment soon after. I haven't heard any more about this kind of email. But, it was written to seem like it was from somebody related to a local person. Whether it was truly a local email or part of a larger effort to seem local, I don't know.
All these smear efforts and efforts to distort every comment made by Obama by the RNC and others make me wonder about something on a very basic level. I'm sure John Mccain is an honorable man, but why would anybody want to vote for somebody they have to lie for?

[Okieborn]

Maureen Dowd and her writings fit right in to the FOX NEWS SLIME and a portion of MSNBC and CNN.
What is so sad some citizenry of this great nation believe this "CRAP" that the news media place before us.
I am getting to know the Slime Slingers so I avoid them like the plague.
I would not put myself through the misery of Joe In the morning with Joe anf Mica Slime, Chuckie Todd is very prejudice as isTucker whats his name add Andrea Mitchell and you have the MSNBC slime gang. Wolf Blitzer of CNN is sooo Bush that he has Republican written all over him.
Tim Russert was one of the best neutral News Reps , what a loss to fair and impartial news coverage !!!

[bbbear]

HAHAHAHA! Oh yes, good ol' Tim Russert of "Integrity is for paupers!" fame.. Oh yes, good ol' Tim who did as he was told and provided ";Meet The Press" ( a joke unto itself! ) when Cheney wanted to promote invading Iraq. Tim Russert is one of too many to name examples of greed over ethics.
Still, I suspect you are right about Fox, Lap Dog Blitzer, Joe and Mica, et al...

[Nonamnesiac]

This is nothing new. They just got caught this time. I've received right-wing hate mail ostensibly from George Carlin, Michael Moore and several others. All of them put forward right-wing spin, especially emphacizing "I lifted-myself-up-by-my-own-bootstraps-and-so-should-everyone-else" mentality and condemned much of what I know they believe in.

Whoever did this on Maureen may well be the same lying piece of vermin who has done this on other progressives that some still hold in high esteem (the list keeps going down as we watch progressive-after-progressive rationalize Obama's funding of war crimes and support of FISA with telecom immunity, mixing religion and politics and on and on).

[Scarllatti]

Maureen is over-estimating her importance in this political season. In fact, I am beginning to detest her statements and writings. Where was Maureen when GWB invaded Iraq? She is still playing the ostrich while Rome burns. Until Americas realize that the "press" is one of the most pressing problems we have in our political system, we will keep falling for their narcissism.

I do not know about you but I have absolutely no regard for the American media. Most of them need psychiatric evaluation. I score them lower than GWB.

[bbbear]

I too despise the corporate media and their so-called journalists. In that light, it seems to me it's best to remain current by reading a variety of other sources which don't depend upon advertisements. Yet even those so-called unbiased journals always have hidden agendas which must be taken into account.

For instance, The Nation is committed to promoting left leaning politicians but, like many of us, they 're often duped. But , also like many here, rather than to admit their selected candidate has lied to them, they make excuses for them while never admitting their candidate seems to be just another politician. Rather than admit they were wrong and simply say, "Anyone is better than John McCain," they continue to fawn over their candidate with the deluded expectations of, in some future time, exerting enough pressure on him to over ride the Ultra billionaires who actually rule the USA .

That is, not one journal, corporate or not, actively protests the electoral college which shuts out all other political party's, or the collusion of the two factions, dems and repubs, of the one corporate party.

I've yet to see anyone on any blog discuss this extremely important issue. I can only guess the corporate media has trained us to forever turn a blind eye to the fact that the USA is a fascist state controlled by a one party system which is enabled by the electoral college.

[SEQUOIABISON]

Did everyone think the Swiftboaters from 2004 went away on vacation in 2008?

The Willy Horton Ad writers and the gang of thugs who belittled Kerry's military service are alive and well and once again trying to have an impact on the election.

[bored2tears]

It reads *nothing* like Maureen Dowd's writing ... yet I have no doubt there are many in "Flagtown, USA" who believe every word.

[mamacat]

This is what the Republicans will do from here until the election. It has only begun. Rovian tactics are only going to get worse, not better.

One good thing is that a large number of middle of the road voters now realise that Republicans embrace these smear campaigns, and are turned off by them. Republicans have earned themselves a very bad reputation, and Rovian tactics are digging the hole deeper with every passing day.

[BlackbirdHighway]

"the first time she's been indirectly involved in a smear campaign. "

I guess no one remembers the 2000 election? She smeared Al Gore over and over and over, but oh how she loved George W. Bush!

[jfh]

And that was when I stopped reading her column --- this dried up old prune should retire to a nunnery and spend the rest of her days repenting

[Trollstakeyourmeds]

Ah...but you missed her nuanced statement. "First time I've been INDIRECTLY involved in a smear campaign". She was very DIRECTLY involved in smearing Senator Clinton on a daily basis. Chickens...roosting....all that crap.