Saturday, February 4, 2012

Maureen Dowd, "The Great Man’s Wife": Narcissism Running Amok

An op-ed about Newt Gingrich? Why waste the ink? Nevertheless, Maureen Dowd, apparently bereft of ideas, has written another opinion piece about him. In her latest New York Times op-ed, "The Great Man’s Wife" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/dowd-the-great-mans-wife.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss), Dowd writes of Newt and his third wife Callista:

"While a trophy wife is admired by her man, the admiring eyes of a Transformational Wife are there to propel her man to the next level. And when a woman who wants to be a Transformational Wife merges with a man who calls himself a Transformational Figure, you can expect a narcissistic blastoff."

Fortunately for Newt, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, due out in 2013, has eliminated five of the 10 personality disorders that are listed in the current edition, and narcissistic personality disorder is among the five (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/health/views/30mind.html).

But isn't Maureen being a bit hard on the man. Consider --

Gingrich: "Because I am much like Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, I'm such an unconventional political figure that you really need to design a unique campaign that fits the way I operate and what I'm trying to do." (see: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/15/politics/acosta-gingrich-surges/index.html)

Obama: "I would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president -- with the possible exceptions of Johnson, FDR and Lincoln." (see: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2011/12/does-barack-obama-believe-hes-the-4th-best-modern-president.html)

. . . .

Gingrich: "By the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon." (see: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46208543/ns/local_news-clarksburg_wv/t/experts-say-gingrich-moon-base-dreams-not-lunacy/)

Obama: "As President, I will establish a robust and balanced civilian space program" that "not only will inspire the world with both human and robotic space exploration but also will again lead in confronting the challenges we face here on Earth, including global climate change, energy independence, and aeronautics research." (see: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=8

Pick your poison. If it were only possible, I would vote for W.C. Fields, who played "The Great Man" in "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break," over either of these two gentlemen --

Truman: "The buck stops here."

Fields: "There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation."

Perhaps it is indeed time to face the situation and acknowledge that narcissism is running amok in the US presidential race.

1 comment:

  1. O'Dowd is demonstrating perhaps her own narcissism, denigrating Callista as someone who has "created an entirely new model for a spouse, standing mute in her primary color suits and triple-strand pearls looking at the 68-year-old Newt for the whole event, her platinum carapace inclined deferentially toward his shaggy gray mane."

    I suspect Maureen doesn't like Callista's faith-based approach. Callista and Newt's documentary on the piety of the founding fathers and early settlers likely unsettled her.

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