Dissecting Maureen Dowd's Obama Hit Piece

As is her custom, Dowd fixated on personality and stagecraft, not substance, as the poison-penned, Wednesday/Saturday columnist for The New York Times painted a relentlessly unflattering portrait of the senator. The truth is, almost nothing about her Obama column rang true. In part, because Dowd provided virtually no evidence to back up her contentious claims that Obama was out of his element on the national stage; "testy," "irritated," and "conflicted." It appears the senator's specific sin while campaigning in Iowa under Dowd's watchful eye was that he publicly tweaked the press. Rule Number 1: Celebrity Beltway journalists don't like to be upstaged; especially not by newcomers.

Read the full Media Matters column here.