My written entreaties to the Sulzbergers to grant me subscriber status, since I saw myself as a newsstand subscriber, went unanswered. I felt a scan of the QR code could establish by bona fides.
Well, I'm happy to report I've become a digerati because of my new attachment to home delivery of the NYT and the Wall Street Journal. The newsstand price vs. the home delivery price tipped the scale. Luckily, the delivery vendor has proved quite reliable, and I am now a happy subscriber.
So, with this newly acquired status in life, I am now able to check Ms. Dowd out on Sundays online. I do not get the Sunday doorstopper edition of the NYT. And I have to say, lately she's been pretty good. Or, at least reminding me of why I started to read her back at the beginning of her career in her 'Liberties' column when she was taking on president Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky era. "A little nutty/a little slutty" I think went one of Ms. Dowd's phrases.
Ms Dowd was great reading then, and I did predict that she would win a Pulitzer. And of course she did, very soon after.
Adversaries need to be matched to certain other adversaries. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier produced three great fights. Leonard/Hearns, Dempsey/Tunney. Seabiscuit and War Admiral.
And now we're going to get another great match up. Dowd vs. Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Clinton running for president is going to be so much fun. We we're deprived a pay-per-view race when Rudolph Guliani pulled out of a New York Senate race. So, we waited. And while Mrs. Clinton may not have a equally entertaining political opponent, she will be followed by a political journalist. And who better than Ms. Dowd.
Hillary reminds me of the Run to the Roses, the lead up to the Kentucky Derby. Just like candidates need to compile primary delegates, horses need to compile points in order to get in the starting gate for the mile and a quarter classic on the first Saturday in May. They do this by running in races that have points assigned to them. And with the relatively early announcement that Hillary is running, we are going to get two Kentucky Derbies before the 2016 election. Things are seldom this good.
Ms. Dowd, in her most recent column points out that Hillary shares some similarities to Richard Nixon. Maybe more than some. Her column is worth the read to see how she develops this, but it is based on her lifelong knowledge of growing up and being in Washington, using even the experience of her brother when he was a Senate page.
Mrs. Clinton is not, however, the first woman to run for president. Perhaps eventually on a major ticket, but not the first. In a wonderful column in the pre-Murdoch Wall Street Journal era, Cynthia Crossen reminded us in a October 2004 'Deja Vu' piece that Gracie Allen ran on the Surprise Party ticket against FDR in 1940.
Who is Gracie Allen? Well, I won't try and describe her too much, you can do that through the Internet, but she was George Burns's spouse and comic foil in vaudeville and in the early days of television. On TV she'd appear toward the end of her show with George in her crinoline skirt that could block a doorway, and proceed to confuse the world, and George, with stories of her relatives and who was married to whom and what they did to each other. She was a ditz. Except in real life.
She concocted the presidential campaign with the promise of changing the way asparagus was grown, to producing campaign buttons that were the "sew-on kind" so the wearer would not change their mind. She was great fun.
But Mrs. Clinton is really running for president. Ms. Dowd senses that her campaign strategy will be to avoid big audiences, and play up her being a grandmother. (Maybe Surprise Party will be replaced by Knitting Party.) By the time the election rolls around, Hillary will have taped so many appearances that someone is going to wonder if there will actually be a body to swear in if she wins.
Back in the day, politics and the candidates were always compared to horse racing. Someone is a long shot; someone is a sure thing; someone is a dark horse (although presumably that one's to be stricken from the style guide); there is of course a race, and a finish. Maybe even a close finish.
So, which of this year's Derby horses does Hillary most remind you of? In the sports section of Monday's NYT there is a list of their writers' comments about the potential entrants and their strengths and weaknesses.
In certain circles, Mrs. Clinton is already being somewhat vilified for accepting sheik shekels for the Clinton family foundation while she was Secretary of State. Thus, I think the possible Derby horse she might most resemble is American Pharaoh.
No, I didn't make the name up. This is a living and breathing thoroughbred three-year-old whose chances for a Derby are considered very good. He has a hall-of-fame trainer in Bob Baffert and will likely be ridden by Victor Espinoza, winner of last year's Derby aboard California Chrome, and War Emblem, another Derby winner. The connections, as they say in racing, are very good. Consider what the NYT sports writers Joe Drape and Melissa Hoppert have to say.
JD:
He validated the buzz coming from the backside with a sensational Arkansas Derby (think husband's birthplace and where he was governor) victory. Who'd he beat? (They always say that.) That's up for debate.
MH:
The son of Pioneer of the Nile, the colt followed the Rebel Stakes win with an absolutely dominating eight-length victory in the Arkansas Derby. (It was impressive.) He and Dortmund (substitute a person's real name) have established themselves as the ones to beat, but I think Dortmund has faced tougher competition. (They also always hedge.)
I can't wait for Maureen Dowd to call the coming race.
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